scholarly journals Promoting Construction Industrialisation with Policy Interventions: A Holistic Review of Published Policy Literature

Author(s):  
Xin Jin ◽  
Geoffrey Q. P. Shen ◽  
Qian-Cheng Wang ◽  
E. M. A. C. Ekanayake ◽  
Siqi Fan

By adopting the concept of ‘factory assembly followed by onsite installation,’ construction industrialisation (CI) plays an increasingly important role in sustainable urban development. CI can enhance construction quality and efficiency while reducing environmental impacts. To promote the CI, several policy interventions have been developed and implemented in different countries and regions. This study reviews the global CI promoting regulations and policies to provide a comprehensive insight into its interrelationship and development tendency. The research selects 105 publications related to practical CI policy from widely utilised databases (i.e., Web of Science and Scopus). Based on the annual publication trend analysis, geospatial distribution, and citation analysis, seven interrelated critical CI policy formulation themes are identified and examined: regulatory policies, standardised policies, promotional policies, urban design and planning policies, technological policies, managerial and educational policies, and sustainability policies. In addition, internal correlations and mutual influence among these seven classified policies are explored and discussed, which helps scholars enhance their grasp of current CI policy research and guide future research. This review provides the research community and industrial practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of various CI-promoting policies and a roadmap to CI-promoting policy development and evaluation.

Author(s):  
Zezhou Wu ◽  
Lirong Luo ◽  
Heng Li ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Guoqiang Bi ◽  
...  

As a game-changing technology with significant environmental, economic, and social benefits, prefabricated technology has attracted attention and has been increasingly adopted in the construction industry. Although multitudinous studies have investigated various aspects of prefabrication in construction, a thorough review of its current development state that synthesized environmental, economic, and social sustainability dimensions remains overdue. Therefore, this study aims to fill this research gap by constructing a systematic framework, analyzing the research status quos, and providing recommendations for future research. This study first conducted a holistic review of 768 references with NVivo. A research foci framework that represented the body of knowledge in prefabrication in construction was developed with five levels, which were advantages, hindrances, stakeholders, promotion policies, and strategy spectrum. Following the framework, the in-depth analyses from the perspectives of environmental, economic, social sustainability, technologies development, and promotion strategies were performed. The current research domains were further linked with potential research directions for promoting prefabricated construction towards sustainability. The study is of value in both offering references for policy formulation and stakeholder practice and providing recommendations for future research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris ◽  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Steve Rathje ◽  
Kimberly Doell ◽  
...  

The spread of misinformation, including “fake news,” propaganda, and conspiracy theories, represents a serious threat to society, as it has the potential to alter beliefs, behavior, and policy. Research is beginning to disentangle how and why misinformation is spread and identify processes that contribute to this social problem. We propose an integrative model to understand the social, political, and cognitive psychology risk factors that underlie the spread of misinformation and highlight strategies that might be effective in mitigating this problem. However, the spread of misinformation is a rapidly growing and evolving problem; thus scholars need to identify and test novel solutions, and work with policy makers to evaluate and deploy these solutions. Hence, we provide a roadmap for future research to identify where scholars should invest their energy in order to have the greatest overall impact.


This book is the product of a two-year research programme entitled Restarting European Long-Term Investment Finance (RELTIF), organized by Assonime and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in London. The programme brought together leading researchers from across the world to consider the causes of the persistently low level of investment in Europe, to examine the extent to which the financial system was a contributory factor and to identify possible policy remedies for it. It considered the relation of finance to corporate sector investment, the lending behaviour of banks, the provision of equity financing, the role of public sector institutions, regulation, and taxation. The chapters in this volume provide one of the most comprehensive and thorough analyses of any financial system that has been undertaken to date. They reflect a large body of research using new and existing data sets, employing advanced empirical tools, and exploiting the unique insights provided by the tumultuous events of the financial and sovereign debt crises. Together they comprise an exceptional body of knowledge to advance academic thinking and guide policy formulation in the future.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110283
Author(s):  
Katherine Brandt ◽  
Michelle Johnson-Motoyama

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a public health crisis that organizations and individuals in several fields are working to prevent and address. State lawmakers are a group with substantial power to address TDV and intimate partner violence (IPV) through policies including Civil Protection Order (CPO) statutes. Understanding the factors that influence how state legislators craft TDV and IPV policies and how those policies are implemented can lead to policy processes that better serve survivors. Past research suggests the level of gender inequality in a state may be an important influence on TDV policies. This study used a case study approach to compare the processes of adding individuals in dating relationships to CPO statutes in a subset of states ( n = 3) with high, middle, and low levels of gender inequality. Results did not suggest that gender inequality was related to variation between states but rather that it was a larger factor that creates the need for TDV policies at all. Relationships between the state IPV coalitions and lawmakers and the historical moment that laws were considered emerged as important factors in interstate variation. Future research can build on these results by further exploring the role of gender inequality in policy processes with additional states or policies and by examining the factors identified here in greater depth. Implications for practice are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Crystal C. Hall

In the United States, the lack of personal savings has been a perennial concern in the world of public policy. Policymakers and other practitioners constantly struggle with how to encourage families to accumulate funds in preparation for inevitable, but often unpredictable, financial emergencies. The field of applied behavioral science has attempted to address this challenge—often with mixed or modest results. I argue that psychological science (personality and social psychology in particular) offers underappreciated insights into the design and implementation of policy interventions to improve the rate of individual savings. In this article, I briefly discuss examples of prior interventions that have attempted to increase saving and then lay out some opportunities that have not been deeply explored. Future research in this area should broaden and deepen the way that psychology is leveraged as a tool to improve the financial security of the people who are the most vulnerable.


2021 ◽  
pp. 215336872098889
Author(s):  
Lynn A. Addington

A punitive legacy of the responses to school shootings in the United States is the expansion of exclusionary discipline. Black girls have disproportionately experienced this form of punishment as compared to white girls and non-Black girls of color. A small, but growing, body of research has examined the patterns and causes of this disparity. Current studies have made suggestions for possible solutions to address this disparity, but these recommendations are not readily accessible in a single location. A catalogue of these ideas could provide a useful foundation for policy development and evaluation. The present research note seeks to generate this resource by conducting a systematic review to identify and categorize recommendations aimed at reducing the discipline disparity experienced by Black girls. Based on this review, four categories emerged that center around: (1) culturally competent school programs, (2) enhanced teacher training, (3) spaces at school for empowering Black girls, and (4) trauma-informed student policies. This research note discusses these categories of recommendations using an intersectional framework and concludes with a summary of next steps to guide future research and policy work to address the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline against Black girls.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Otieno ◽  
Fauzia A. Malik ◽  
Stacy W. Nganga ◽  
Winnie N. Wairimu ◽  
Dominic O. Ouma ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Maternal immunization is a key strategy for reducing morbidity and mortality associated with infectious diseases in mothers and their newborns. Recent developments in the science and safety of maternal vaccinations have made possible development of new maternal vaccines ready for introduction in low- and middle-income countries. Decisions at the policy level remain the entry point for maternal immunization programs. We describe the policy and decision-making process in Kenya for the introduction of new vaccines, with particular emphasis on maternal vaccines, and identify opportunities to improve vaccine policy formulation and implementation process. Methods We conducted 29 formal interviews with government officials and policy makers, including high-level officials at the Kenya National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, and Ministry of Health officials at national and county levels. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. We analyzed the qualitative data using NVivo 11.0 software. Results All key informants understood the vaccine policy formulation and implementation processes, although national officials appeared more informed compared to county officials. County officials reported feeling left out of policy development. The recent health system decentralization had both positive and negative impacts on the policy process; however, the negative impacts outweighed the positive impacts. Other factors outside vaccine policy environment such as rumours, sociocultural practices, and anti-vaccine campaigns influenced the policy development and implementation process. Conclusions Public policy development process is complex and multifaceted by its nature. As Kenya prepares for introduction of other maternal vaccines, it is important that the identified policy gaps and challenges are addressed.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Raposo ◽  
Cristina I. Fernandes ◽  
Pedro M. Veiga

PurposeResearch into the relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainability has deepened in terms of both quantity and quality even while still remaining a fragmented and divergent field. Hence, the purpose of this study is to put forward empirical evidence to advance the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainability. To this end, the authors furthermore identify and highlight a future research agenda.Design/methodology/approachThe source of the empirical analysis in this article stems from the Community Innovation Survey, the leading statistical inquiry of innovation in companies carried out by Eurostat based upon the conceptual framework set out in the Oslo Manual. For modelling the variables, the authors applied binary regression based on logistic distribution.FindingsThe results of the research demonstrated how all of the variables considered for entrepreneurial ecosystems (co-operation with suppliers, co-operation with clients or customers, co-operation with universities; co-operation with government, public or private research institutes) return positive impacts on national sustainabilityResearch limitations/implicationsDespite the data spanning only the nine countries in the database, the results enable insights into the theory as the results serve to strengthen already existing considerations on the positive effects of entrepreneurial ecosystems for the sustainability of countries.Practical implicationsThe results of the research may generate important implications for company policy formulation. The identification of the relevance of the different actors in entrepreneurial ecosystems and their impact on sustainability may assist firms and policymakers to identify the leading actors and the resources necessary to sustaining their activities and thereby correspondingly establishing their priorities.Originality/valueThe research (1) both deepens the prevailing knowledge on this theme and fills a gap encountered in the existing literature; (2) in practical terms, for managers, entrepreneurs and politicians to better grasp how entrepreneurship constitutes a systemic phenomenon and these systems require approaching in terms of their impacts and greater contributions to obtaining sustainability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (12) ◽  
pp. 1418-1433
Author(s):  
Abdelaziz Chazi ◽  
Alexandra Theodossiou ◽  
Zaher Zantout

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate new robust measures of investors’ preference for the form of regular corporate payout. Then, the paper adds to the empirical evidence on catering theory by examining managers’ catering to such preference. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the matching method to control for firm characteristics. The authors apply two robustness tests to validate the measures. The authors use the rigorous multivariate analysis. Findings US investors’ preference for regular dividends vs regular stock repurchases, being different forms of corporate payout, varies over time. Managers cater to investors’ preference for payout form. The findings are consistent with the catering theory of Baker and Wurgler (2004a). The number of firms that pay cash dividends regularly continue to outnumber the ones that purchase their shares regularly. Research limitations/implications The study only uses US data. It does not cover other countries. Practical implications The measures can be used in several future research endeavors, such as examining investors’ payout-form preferences in other countries (see Booth and Zhou, 2017) and exploring their determinants, the corporate governance characteristics of firms that cater to investors’ preference vs firms that do not, etc. Social implications The study contributes to understanding investors’ preferences and corporate payout behavior which is prerequisite to efficient policy formulation. Originality/value The proxies for investors’ payout-form preference control for firm characteristics and are unrelated to investors’ time-varying risk preferences. Also, they are robust to measurement issues. Moreover, the study covers a period of 40 years.


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 499-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott MacDonald ◽  
Jinhui Zhao ◽  
Basia Pakula ◽  
Tim Stockwell ◽  
Lorissa Martens

Alcohol sales data provide a more accurate indication of alcohol consumption than alternative methods such as population surveys. This information can be used to better understand epidemiological issues related to alcohol consumption, policy development and evaluation. Official sales records were collected for the 28 regional districts of British Columbia (BC) for 2002–2005, while homemade alcohol was estimated from survey data. Alcohol consumption rates were found to vary across geographic regions, by season, and with population level demographics. Government stores were the largest source of alcohol consumption in BC, accounting for 45.1% of total alcohol consumption in 2004. U-Brews/U-Vins accounted for 4.0%, private liquor stores accounted for 27.5% of the total, and homemade alcohol made up 4.3% of total alcohol consumption. Analysis also revealed that the average alcohol concentration in wines (12.53%) and coolers (6.77%) has been underestimated by Statistics Canada. The feasibility of developing this type of alcohol monitoring system is examined. Finally, implications for the development of targeted public health initiatives and future research are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document