Microsoft Word - The Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Build…


 

 ii 

Editorial 
 

 
Associate Professor 
David Baccarini 

 
Associate Professor 
Peter Davis 

 

Welcome to the first issue of our Journal for 2007. Curtin 
University of Technology and in particular the Department of 
Construction Management are delighted to be the hosts for this 
year’s Australian Journal of Construction Economics and 
Building (AJCEB). 

This edition of the journal has an interesting mix of papers. The 
first by Yu Lay Langston and Craig Langston investigates the 
energy and cost performance of thirty recent buildings in 
Melbourne, Australia.  The aim of their paper is to report on 
typical values for embodied energy, operating energy, capital 
cost and operating cost per square metre for a range of building 
functional types investigated in this research.  They conclude 
that energy and cost have quite different profiles across 
projects. 

Kathy Michell, Paul Bowen and Keith Cattell use a soft systems 
methodology to explore the perceptions of stakeholders to a 
cost management system and develop conceptual models of 
theory and practice of cost management. They find significant 
differences between the perceptions of individual stakeholders 
concerning design team participants, participants’ roles, and the 
purpose of the cost management system. They provide 
recommendations for structural, attitudinal and procedural 
changes to cost management systems in order to facilitate 
effective functioning in the achievement of client’s needs and 
objectives. 

The third paper by Gerard de Valence looks at the significance 
of barriers that firms considering entry into the construction 
industry might face.  Drawing on the microeconomic 
characteristics of imperfectly competitive and oligopolistic 
markets the analysis finds that there are a dozen barriers to 
entry. Gerard identifies specific barriers, which leads to an 
analysis of how they operate and their significance (high, 
medium or low) in different market types. 

John Greenwood analyses the impact of the introduction of 
performance-based code within Western Australia and gauges 
the effect and usefulness of alternative design solutions in 
commercial construction; using a case study project.  The 
research reveals that there are several advantages to 
alternative designs and that all parties, in general, are in favour 
of the performance-based building code of Australia. 

Finally, Michelle Watson’s paper addresses the underlying, 
influential factors concerning skills shortages in the Australian 
construction industry. Michelle suggests influencing factors 
include funding, training statistics, employer expectations, 
financial limitations, Industrial Relations and immigration and 
notes that if skills shortages continue to exist, their effect will 
impact upon the overall performance of construction companies 
throughout Australia.