A new framework for ranking Critical Success Factors for International Construction Projects

Due to the wide range of opportunities, collaborations, and challenges offered by the international construction sector, interest in international construction is on the rise. Construction companies must be able to carry out international construction projects (ICPs) more effectively and efficiently. However, executing ICPs is more challenging than executing domestic construction projects. Considering the peculiarities of the construction industry and the associated complexity of construction projects, construction companies should decide on international capability and the selection of an ICP through a careful evaluation of their critical success factors (CSFs). Most of the previous research deals with the concept of CSFs in the context of project management in general, but few studies have identified CSFs for ICPs. To fill that gap in current research, the main objective of this study was to identify and group CSFs for ICPs. A total of 37 CSFs were identified after conducting a detailed literature review and a pre-pilot study. A new framework of CSFs for ICPs was proposed following primary research, which was conducted through in-depth interviews with leading experts in international projects. Although the constructability/complexity factor of the project received the highest rating in terms of importance to the success of the ICP, the next most critical factors were found to be external factors, such as local contractor/subcontractor, investor, and presence of a foreign partner. The results of this research may help participants involved in ICPs to improve their understanding of the international construction environment and deliver more successful ICPs.

Added value of sites suitable for sustainable office development

Valuations of real estate are widely used for various purposes and it relied always upon the financial and other markets. Valuation methodology is based on the operation of the free market economy and the real estate properties. The issue of certified properties is relatively new in the field of real estate valuation and is not sufficiently explored. Certified buildings are preferred by major corporate tenants with international field of activity who often have ethical rules for sustainable development. Therefore, certified properties are attractive to international commercial real estate investors who have higher purchasing power and are willing to pay a higher purchase price. Sustainable property certification is an element affecting the market value of the property. The purpose of this presented research is to quantify the impact of property certification on the value of office properties in Prague and subsequently to determine the impact of sustainability certificates on the market value of the land by using basic valuation techniques. The outcome of the project could be used by real estate valuation experts as a guideline to consider the future project certification and its impact on the land market value.

Understanding the effects of BIM implementation in corporation finance: An empirical study in China

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been acknowledged for promoting effectiveness and efficiency in project planning and management activities including design, bidding, and construction. Yet limited effort has been made to investigate the impacts of BIM implementation on corporate performance. Using the financial information of 314 Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) companies listed in the A-share market of China, this paper examines the economic benefits of BIM practice and assesses the influential mechanism of BIM implementation at the corporation level. The results reveal that BIM adoption contributes to better corporate profitability, especially in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). The positive impact of BIM implementation on profitability is achieved by the functions of promoting schedule efficiency and operation cost reduction. However, high initial BIM investment is still required in China's AEC companies at the current stage, and the effectiveness enhancement in corporation management has not been realized. By providing clear empirical evidence of the economic benefits of BIM adoption from a corporation perspective, this study might help improve top managers’ awareness, intention, or support of future BIM utilization in China's AEC companies.

Construction health and safety: A topic landscape study

We aim to draw in-depth insights into the current literature in construction health and safety and provide perspectives for future research efforts. The existing literature on construction health and safety is not only diverse and rich in sight, but also complex and fragmented in structure. It is essential for the construction industry and research community to understand the overall development and existing challenges of construction health and safety to adapt to future new code of practice and challenges in this field. We mapped the topic landscape followed by identifying the salient development trajectories of this research area over time. We used the topic modeling algorithm to extract 10 distinct topics from 662 abstracts (filtered from a total of 895) of articles published between 1991 and 2020. In addition, we provided the most cited references and the most popular journal per topic as well. The results from a time series analysis suggested that the construction health and safety would maintain its popularity in the next 5 years. Research efforts would be devoted to the topics including “Physical health and disease”, “Migrant and race”, “Vocational ability and training”, and “Smart devices.” Among these topics, “Smart devices” would be the most promising one.

Sleep duration and fatigue in construction workers: A preliminary study

The construction industry is known for its high rate of accidents. Among the different possible causes of this situation, we could find lack of sleep and fatigue. Chronic sleep deprivation is a determining factor in the deterioration of vigilance and alert, and consequently a risk factor for occupational accidents. Fatigue is the answer of our organism to sustained physical and mental stress. Regretfully, those topics have been ovelooked in the construction industry. The objective of this study is to understand better these phenomena, such as sleep duration and fatigue, and whether they are interrelated, and to propose strategies to mitigate them and contribute to the reduction of accidents in construction projects. We worked with 154 male construction workers from one Chilean construction company. To assess sleep quality, we used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). To evaluate fatigue, we used a personal computer version of the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PC-PVT) that measures alertness and vigilance. This 5-minute test was performed on construction workers on-site in the morning. Those people who took part in the test were classified into various groups according to self-reported sleep hours, namely: 7–9 h (26%), 5–7 h (61.7%), and <5 h (12.3%). These results were compared for three variables (Mean Reaction Time (RT), 10% faster, and 10% slower) using an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test. Differences were found for Mean RT and Slowest 10%, the difference being greater in the group that reported sleeping <5 h, but without statistical significance. Studies with a greater number of subjects and measurements are required throughout the working day.

Determination of construction process duration based on labor productivity estimation: A case study

Monitoring labor productivity and how to decrease construction costs are the key issues in the planning process of a construction project. The CONTEC automated system combined with statistical methods assists in predicting the amount of time required to complete construction works according to the specified number of deployed work crews, technological processes, and labor required for certain production in person-hours. This study applies statistical analyses and probability theories for plastering work, which represents a labor-intensive construction process. The goal of the research is to determine the probability of completion of the construction process based on monitoring the mean value of performance. By application of statistical analyses a decrease in the performance standard has been proved compared with the planned values given in the CONTEC database. The decrease in performance, which was also caused by the number of days with unfavorable climatic conditions and demonstrated by performing interval estimates based on the collection of statistical data, was later confirmed by a relative frequency test. The measures taken were in terms of establishing the required number of personnel capacities for complying with the construction schedule.

Providing a framework for optimizing a mixing design of reactive powder concrete (RPC)

Suitable distribution of particles and the presence of hydration lead to the improved compressive performance and optimum (even reduced) cost in the production of reactive powder concrete (RPC). This study was conducted to obtain a better understanding of RPC and analyze the behavior of modified RPC (MRPC) using the properties of surface resistivity, water penetration, compressive strength, and modulus of elasticity, apart from the cost. The present study was carried out to investigate how to optimize the size and diversity of the aggregate in order to increase the applications and reduce the costs. The options were selected from among the 12 alternatives classified during the construction stages. According to the six weighting parameters used for comparing with the sample, the derived framework can be described as a mixing design for RPC. Five weighting criteria were considered with values of one of the five criteria missing, and in one case, all criteria were taken with equal weights. For the final analysis, the Expert Choice software was used to create a framework for the optimal mix design of RPC and MRPC. The MRPC mixing designs showed good results, with very slight differences compared to RPC. In many cases, MRPC can be used instead of RPC.

Leadership skills, stakeholder management and execution of fibre-optic infrastructure: intervening influence of government policy

Communication technology has drastically evolved in the last 10 years across the globe. With increased demand for data and voice traffic, fibre-optic network is preferred to transmit high-speed broadband. Nonetheless, fibre-optic infrastructure involves huge construction challenges and continues to fail because of ineffective leadership, stakeholder management and government policies. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how government policy intervenes on the joint influence of leadership skills and stakeholder management on execution of fibre-optic infrastructure in Nairobi County, Kenya. This study adopted the pragmatism paradigm approach, with a cross-sectional survey design. Census was used to select 187 respondents from a target population of 187 functional staff in fibre-optic infrastructure departments. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while an interview guide was used to collect qualitative data. Statistical analysis techniques were used to analyse the data. It was demonstrated that government policy has a significant intervening influence on the joint influence of leadership skills and stakeholder management on execution of fibre-optic infrastructure. Therefore, governments should come up with policies to guide and regulate execution of fibre-optic infrastructure, review building code to allow for fibre-optic services in new buildings, develop right of way conduits and establish a centrally coordinated authority to facilitate time-bound issuance of permits and related services. It was suggested that similar studies should be carried out in other countries and target vendors and contractors engaged in supply of equipment and construction of fibre-optic infrastructure.

A framework for achieving sustainability by overcoming the challenges of the construction supply chain during the design process

This paper aims to develop a framework to achieve sustainability by overcoming the challenges of the construction supply chain (CCSC) during the design process. To achieve this, two approaches, namely theoretical and practical, were used to accomplish four objectives. For the theoretical approach, based on literature review and case studies, the objective used was to identify, classify and validate the challenges that the construction supply chain (CSC) encounter. For the practical approach, a survey questionnaire was employed to quantify the CCSC and investigate the perception of architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt towards achieving sustainability by overcoming the CCSC during the design process. Based on the results, the research developed a framework to overcome the CCSC as an approach towards achieving sustainability in construction projects during the design process. The research identified and validated 20 challenges that the CSC encounter towards achieving sustainability during the design process. These challenges were classified under four categories, namely (1) design and technical process; (2) coordination, information flow and accuracy; (3) material specification, technology, supplier rework and whole life cycle cost; and (4) skills gap of the qualified architects and design managers and non-compliance to building codes, regulations, laws and standards. In addition, a survey questionnaire was employed to rank these challenges according to their importance on 1–5 Likert scale using the measure of central tendency and dispersion and relative importance index (RII).

Network analysis of interconnections between theoretical concepts associated with principal–agent theory concerning construction projects

Communication risks and asymmetric information among project participants are often associated with poor performance in construction projects. Communication and coordination are prominent issues in recent research on construction management, with little actual theoretical foundation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which principal–agent (P–A) theory and its implications are used in construction management research. In the archives of the top seven construction management journals, 148 scientific papers mentioning P–A theory were found. The keywords were analysed to determine the connections between them. Network analysis (NA) of the interconnected keywords was used to illustrate the most common relations between P–A theory and construction management. The findings of this study indicate that the most important elements associated with P–A theory in construction management are contracts, governance, partnership, transaction costs, information systems, incentives, risk management, and trust. However, some keywords are often used without considering related theoretical concepts. This study introduces a new perspective on P–A theory research in the field of construction management.