Review of construction journals on causes of project cost overruns

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdar Durdyev
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
Project Cost ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Control Factors ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Number Of Citations

PurposeThe study investigates the causes of project cost overruns (COs) that have been reported in the construction-management-related articles since 1985.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the aim and provide recommendations to avoid project COs, 48 selected journal articles were reviewed and assessed with regard to the countries, institutions and researchers that have contributed to the subject.FindingsThe review of the articles shows that the subject has attracted a considerable attention from the researchers worldwide. However, the problem mainly occurred in developing countries and the researchers drew the attention on the resource-related, economic/financial as well as political problems. While 79 causes of COs were identified, the top ten causes of project COs, which have received the highest number of citations by the reviewed articles, were presented and discussed. These causes are: design problems and incomplete design, inaccurate estimation, poor planning, weather, poor communication, stakeholder's skill, experience and competence, financial problems/poor financial management, price fluctuations, contract management issues and ground/soil conditions.Research limitations/implicationsThe study findings have several implications, which are not only for the academic world, but also for the construction front line. For scholars, the study provides a list of project COs that the researchers in the area could benefit for their future studies. The industry practitioners could find ways to improve project cost performance by giving attention to the causative factors that are significantly affecting construction projects and investing their resources and efforts towards the most occurred ones.Originality/valueThus, this study provides insight into the research output on the subject and a checklist of COs, which is believed to provide a better understanding of significant areas requiring attention where steps should be taken to minimize or control factors causing COs in construction projects.

Causes of delays on construction projects: a comprehensive list

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdar Durdyev ◽  
M. Reza Hosseini
Keyword(s):  
Construction Projects ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Site Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Control Factors ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Poor Site ◽  
Causes Of Delays ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of studies on CPD published between 1985 and 2018. Design/methodology/approach Before identifying common CPD, research trends were examined in terms of the number of publications in selected journals, as well as the contributions made by countries, institutions and researchers. Findings The findings reveal that researchers from developing countries have contributed the most to identifying the causes of CPD. A total of 149 causes of CPD were identified in a thorough review of 97 selected studies. Weather/climate conditions, poor communication, lack of coordination and conflicts between stakeholders, ineffective or improper planning, material shortages, financial problems, payment delays, equipment/plant shortage, lack of experience/qualification/competence among project stakeholders, labour shortages and poor site management were identified as the ten most common CPDs. Originality/value Being the first study of its type, this study provides insight into the research output related to this area and identifies a common set of CPDs, which may provide a better understanding of the key areas requiring attention where steps should be taken to minimise or control factors causing delays in construction projects.

scholarly journals Cost overruns of public sector construction projects: a developing country perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Ohene Asiedu ◽  
Ebenezer Adaku
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Construction Project ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Project Cost ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interview Session ◽  
Construction Project Cost

Purpose Cost overrun of construction projects has been a key concern for all stakeholders of projects for many decades now. Many studies have been done in the past and continue to be done currently to understand the underlying causes of construction project cost overruns. However, the empirical evidence of the causes seem not be clear due to the silo approach in understanding the causes of construction project cost overruns. The purpose of this paper is to take the debate a step forward by providing an understanding of the causes of project cost overrun from a system’s perspective, especially from a less researched environment. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected and analysed from 131 respondents who were mainly involved in construction works in public procurement entities in Ghana. A two-staged approach was employed in collecting data from the respondents. The first stage involved an interview session with key informants in the construction industry in Ghana to ascertain the detailed causes of cost overrun of construction projects. The second stage focussed on the validation of these detailed factors by a wider stakeholder group through questionnaires. Factor analysis was employed to consolidate these detailed factors into major causes of construction project cost overruns. Findings The results show that there are primarily four major causes of most public sector construction projects cost overruns. These four major causes of cost overruns are poor contract planning and supervision; change orders; weak institutional and economic environment of projects and lack of effective coordination among the contracting parties. Originality/value The study provides more insights as to the critical and major factors that underpin public sector construction projects cost overruns and more importantly provides a basis for common treatment of the multiple risk factors engendering public sector construction projects cost overruns.

Major causes of construction time and cost overruns

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Famiyeh ◽  
Charles Teye Amoatey ◽  
Ebenezer Adaku ◽  
Collins Sena Agbenohevi
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Cost Overrun ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Construction Time ◽  
Government School ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting

Purpose In Ghana, the duration of construction projects from inception to completion is becoming a great concern, recently, especially among clients and beneficiaries, because of the rising interest rates, inflation, development plan targets, among other factors. Hence the need to understand the causes of delays and cost overrun in the construction sector has become more important than ever. This study therefore aims to identify the major factors underlying time and cost overruns in projects related to the education sector in Ghana to proffer practical solutions in addressing them. Design/methodology/approach The study conducted a survey among clients’ consultants and representatives of the contractors working on about 60 government school projects. A relative importance index was used to determine the relative effects of the factors causing construction time and cost overruns. Findings The key factors causing construction time overrun were: financial problems, unrealistic contract durations imposed by clients, poorly defined project scope, client-initiated variations, under-estimation of project cost by consultants, poor inspection/supervision of projects by consultants. Other factors were underestimation of project complexity by contractors, poor site management, inappropriate construction methods used by contractors and delays in the issuance of permits by government agencies. Factors affecting cost overruns were financial difficulty by client, delays in payments of completed works, variations in designs, lack of communications plans, poor feasibility and project analysis, poor financial management on site and material price fluctuations. Research limitations/implications The research was limited to only the educational sector projects. Practical implications Practically, this study highlights for the construction sector the critical factors causing project time and cost overruns in Ghana. Identification of these factors provides the basis for pragmatic solutions to enhance the chances of project success. Social implications The identification and solutions to project time and cost overruns, especially for educational sector projects, contribute toward making public goods more affordable and accessible to most citizens, particularly in developing countries. Originality/value This study contributes to the debate on factors causing project time and cost overruns in the construction sector especially from a developing country’s perspective.

Challenges in public private partnerships in construction industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sajani Jayasuriya ◽  
Guomin Zhang ◽  
Rebecca Jing Yang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Stakeholder Management ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Limited Application ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

PurposePublic private partnerships (PPPs) face challenges in implementation and operation, and need efforts to improve their performance. The purpose of this paper is to review the PPP literature quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to establish challenge themes and set research directions.Design/methodology/approachMore than 4,000 papers published between 2008 and 2017 were retrieved. From this collection, papers from five major international journals were selected to explore extant PPP research findings under six main PPP challenges including: challenges related to financial management, concession period and price determination, operational phase, risk management, PPP project procurement and stakeholder management (SM). Initially, the papers were categorised quantitatively into the identified challenges and subsequently the articles were qualitatively analysed and discussed.FindingsPoor SM, the complexity of risk management models, project delivery time and cost overruns, inadequate consideration of whole life-cycle aspects and over-reliance on a Public Sector Comparator for evaluating PPPs are found to be the most commonly encountered issues. These all warrant more extensive attention and innovative solutions.Practical implicationsPPP projects have faced many challenges in practice and also existing research findings have limited application in practice. Challenges highlighted in this research can be a focus area in practice to improve the performance of PPPs.Originality/valueNo previous reviews have explored the challenges relating to PPP projects and how they can then addressed by further studies in the field. This review is intended to address that gap, and should help to shed light on further research directions to address the emerging challenges in PPP procurement.

The Global Financial Crisis: what have we learned so far?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karyn L. Neuhauser
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial System ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Number Of Citations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a cohesive review of the major findings in the literature concerning the Global Financial Crisis. Design/methodology/approach – Papers published in top-rated finance and economics journal since the crisis up to the present were reviewed. A large number of these were selected for inclusion, primarily based on the number of citations they had received adjusted for the amount of time elapsed since their publication, but also partly based on how well they fit in with the narrative. Findings – Much has been done to investigate the causes of the Global Financial Crisis, its effects on various aspects of the financial system, and the effectiveness of regulatory measures undertaken to restore the financial system. While more remains to be done, the existing body of research paints an interesting picture of what happened and why it happened, describes the interrelationships between the mortgage markets and financial markets created by the large scale securitization of financial assets, identifies the problems created by these inter-linkages and offers possible solutions, and assesses the effectiveness of the regulatory response to the crisis. Originality/value – This study summarizes a vast amount of literature using a framework that allows the reader to quickly absorb a large amount of information as well as identify specific works that they may wish to examine more closely. By providing a picture of what has been done, it may also assist the reader in identifying areas that should be the subject of future research.

Study of Asian RDR based on re3data

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-313
Author(s):  
Jane Cho
Keyword(s):  
Research Output ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Subject

Purpose RDR has become an essential academic infrastructure in an atmosphere that facilitates the openness of research output granted by public research funds. This study aims to understand operational status of 152 Asian data repositories on re3data and cluster repositories into four groups according to their operational status. In addition, identify the main subject areas of RDRs in Asian countries and try to understand what topic correlations exist between data archived in Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach This study extracts metadata from re3data and analyzes it in various ways to grasp the current status of research data repositories in Asian countries. The author clusters the repositories into four groups using hierarchical cluster analysis according to the level of operation. In addition, for identifying the main subject areas of RDRs in Asian countries, extracted the keywords of the subject field assigned to the each repository, and Pathfinder Network (PFNET) analysis is performed. Findings About 70 per cent of the Asian-country repositories are those where licenses or policies are declared but not granted permanent identifiers and international-level certification. As a result of the subject domain analysis, eight clusters are formed centering on life sciences and natural sciences. Originality/value The research output in developing countries, especially non-English-speaking countries, tends not to be smoothly circulated in the international community due to the immaturity of the open-access culture, as well as linguistic and technical problems. This study has value, in that it investigates the status of Asian countries’ research data management and global distribution infrastructure in global open-science trends.

Barriers to lean construction implementation in Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tirivavi Moyo ◽  
Benviolent Chigara
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Lean Construction ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific

Purpose Increased waste during projects execution has led to time and cost overruns within the Zimbabwean construction projects industry. However, contextual barriers to lean construction implementation are yet to be established for derivation of effective remedies. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that sought to determine barriers to lean construction implementation and assess the existence of statistically significant differences because of gender, designation and educational levels of respondents. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was administered on construction professionals for the collection of quantitative data. Factor analysis was used to reveal interrelated significant sets of barriers to lean construction implementation. Non-parametric statistical methods were also used to determine significant differences because of demographic variables. Findings Integration- and performance-related, human capital management–related, quality management–related barriers were determined as the highest-ranked of the nine significant components. Significant differences because of gender, designation and educational levels were non-existent for aggregated barriers, generally indicating consensus on the barriers. However, individual barriers showed inadequacies in management requirements for lean construction implementation from architects and those with diplomas and degrees. Research limitations/implications The determination of barriers establishes the knowledge for construction policy evaluation for enhanced performance of the construction industry. However, because of the exploratory nature of this study, the insights of clients were not considered. Originality/value Context-specific barriers to lean construction implementation were determined for consequent construction policy improvements in the construction industry.

Investigating the causes preventing the fulfillment of construction contract requirements

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadi A. Fatayer ◽  
Amjad Z. Issa ◽  
Mohammed Abunemeh ◽  
Mohammed A.M. Dwikat
Keyword(s):  
Construction Projects ◽  
Subject Matter Experts ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Road Projects ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Spss Software ◽  
The Cost

PurposeConstruction contractors in Palestine, as in many other developing countries, suffer from many problems. One of their main problems is their inability to meet contractual requirements, such as completing projects within time, at the agreed cost and to the desired quality. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the causes of the non-fulfillment of contractual requirements in three different types of projects: building, road and electro-mechanical projects.Design/methodology/approachTwo methods were adopted to collect the data – qualitative and quantitative. In total, 65 causes were identified from the literature and qualitative semi-structured interviews with professional experts. These causes were classified into five categories: managerial, financial, contractor capabilities, regulations and laws and political. In the quantitative approach, a questionnaire was developed and then distributed to 50 professional experts: 20 building experts, 15 road experts and 15 experts in electro-mechanical projects. A five-point Likert scale was used to assess the importance, from the perspective of the subject matter experts, of the causes that had been identified. About 35 responses, which represent a combined response rate of 70%, were received. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, with the mean, standard deviation and degree of importance for each of the identified causes being determined, and the SPSS software platform used to rank them.FindingsThe results reveal that the most important reasons why contractors did not fulfill their contractual requirements in building projects were that contracts were awarded to the contractor offering the lowest price, and the profit margin was low because of intense competition among contractors. In road projects, the most important causes were the poor estimation of the equipment required and a lack of standardized conditions in the construction sector, while in electro-mechanical projects, the most important causes were the inability of the contractor to estimate the cost of the project accurately because of unclear bid documents and a lack of contractor capital.Originality/valueThe results of this study will be useful to stakeholders and Palestinian contractor unions. They can be disseminated to give guidance so that contractors can avoid these problems in future construction projects and enhance their compliance with contractual requirements. Moreover, knowing about these causes may lead to the reduction of conflicts and disputes between contractual parties (owners and contractors), which in turn will be reflected in the work quality and reputation of contractors.

Entrepreneurial marketing: a bibliometric analysis of the second decade of the 21st century and future agenda

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
João M. Lopes ◽  
Rozélia Laurett ◽  
Hélder Antunes ◽  
José Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Content Type ◽  
Entrepreneurial Marketing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Management Area ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scopus Database ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
A Current

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the state of the art on publications related to “Business Marketing” over the past 10 years (2010–2020) and available in the SCOPUS database. Design/methodology/approach In this research, a bibliometric study on entrepreneurial marketing (EM) was performed. The articles were selected from the SCOPUS database and dated from January 1, 2010 to July 11, 2020. Findings In total, 124 articles on the area of business management were identified, they are written in English. Through the systematization of these articles, it was found that the majority of the publications and citations about EM are from the year 2020 (378 articles), respectively, with 17 citations. The Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship was the most published on the subject and obtained the highest number of citations over the past 10 years. The authors that obtained the highest number of citations were: Jones and Rowley (2011b) with 101 citations and Mort et al. (2012) with 71 citations. It was also possible to identify four clusters: “entrepreneurial orientation”; “customer strategy”; “market orientation” and “innovative entrepreneurship and marketing.” Practical implications This paper reinforces the coherence and scientific structure of the current literature. The systematization of the concepts we present can be used by managers to define strategies and policies in EM planning. Originality/value This research gives special emphasis to the publications over the past 10 years, related to the management area and focused on the term “Entrepreneurship Marketing,” aiming to identify publication trends. Another innovation from this research is the usage of a single database, for the case SCOPUS. Moreover, the authors also reveal a current agenda with future lines of research in EM, which will serve as a starting point to prepare other studies in this area.

The 1920 Farrow's Bank failure: a case of managerial hubris?

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Hollow
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
External Control ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Organizational Settings ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Witness Statements ◽  
Set Up

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which hubristic behaviour on the part of Thomas Farrow contributed to the downfall of Farrow's Bank in 1920. Design/methodology/approach – The article traces the way in which Thomas Farrow's behaviour changed over the course of his managerial career using primary sources obtained from various British archives, including: court records, witness statements, auditors' reports, newspapers, journals, and personal letters. The article then evaluates Farrow's actions in relation to the criteria outlined in Petit and Bollaert's “Framework for diagnosing CEO hubris” so as to assess how far he can be said to have become afflicted by managerial hubris. Findings – All the collected evidence points to the conclusion that Thomas Farrow had, by the time of the Bank's collapse in 1920, become afflicted by managerial hubris. This was reflected most clearly in the fact that he increasingly came to view himself as being somehow above and beyond the laws of the wider community. As a result, he felt little compunction about fraudulently writing-up the Bank's assets so as to cover the huge losses that his reckless investments had produced. Practical implications – The Farrow's Bank episode confirms that the probability of management hubris materialising is enhanced when external control mechanisms are either lacking or inefficiently applied. On top of this, the amateurish organizational set-up of the Bank also suggests that the likelihood of hubris syndrome developing is enhanced when organizations themselves grant too much discretion to their leaders. Originality/value – The paper breaks new ground by applying the latest management and psychology theories on the subject of leadership hubris to the field of financial management. Its value lies in the fact that it provides scholars and practitioners with an in-depth insight into how hubris syndrome can develop in organizational settings.

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