Non‐standard working has traditionally been regarded as having a negative impact on the careers of female professionals, not least in the male‐dominated construction industry. Caven challenges this notion. Based on the career experiences of 37 female architects, she shows that, in spite of the many assumptions as to what constitutes a career, it is plausible to adopt non‐standard forms of working in the profession of architecture and still develop a successful and satisfying career. This is an important finding both to practitioners and to researchers in that it provides a fresh perspective on women's careers in the construction industry.
Ramsaran and Hosein focus on the behaviour of the construction sector in the small oil rich economy of Trinidad and Tobago. During economic cycles, the construction sector grows faster and shrinks faster than other sectors of the economy, showing that the multiplier operates in both directions. The sector has strong backward and forward linkages and the multiplier effect from these linkages is quite large, resulting in the generation of further income. But while the state of the construction sector is clearly related to the wider economy, it does not follow that providing incentives and increased spending on projects, large or small, necessarily leads to economic development. The lack of institutional and technical capacity is a major constraint. Without such capacity, increased spending is likely to flow out of the country. Inappropriate policies and an inefficient bureaucracy also have an impact on costs and on the utilization of resources. Construction activity fluctuates a lot, and this is often exacerbated by poor planning in the public sector. This research shows that governments can play a more effective role in reducing fluctuations by the better sequencing of capital spending within public sector investment programmes and within defined time frames.
Under‐pricing is a common phenomenon in construction bidding and is often explained by the bidders' needs for cash‐flow. However, this explanation implies profit‐cutting or even incurring deficit, which does not provide a satisfactory explanation for persistent under‐pricing. Yiu and Tam contend that the so‐called under‐priced bids are, in fact, correctly priced bids where the under‐priced portion is the options value for the flexibility and the uncertainty of the construction project. The authors illustrate this idea on a real project using the binomial lattice method. They show that the options value is up to 4% of the total lump sum. Bid analysts should take this into account. This work paves the way for developing a useful stochastic model of cost estimation.
Kale and Arditi consider ISO 9000 to be one of the most important administrative innovations of the last two decades. They examine the factors that influence the diffusion of this innovation through the pre‐cast concrete industry. They have found that the diffusion of ISO 9000 certification is primarily driven by factors internal to the industry, such as copying others, rather than factors imposed on the industry, such as client requirements or government regulation. The imitative behaviour of firms is motivated by the efficiency returns of ISO 9000 certification and is forced on them by various factors such as fear of losing competitive advantage, erosion of legitimacy and fear of losing stakeholder support.
Liu and Fang show that the concept of leadership relates to the structure and location of power within teams. The power of a project manager derives from personal traits and credentials and this is crucial in motivating members of a project team. Using structural equation modelling, Liu and Fang have found that strong project leadership leads to improved performance by motivating project team members. They also reveal that empowerment leads to improved performance because of an increase in participants' motivation.
Significant changes have taken place in the Chinese construction industry since economic reforms began more than 20 years ago, especially with the enterprise reforms in recent years. Wang, Hadavi and Krizek investigate the transitions that have occurred in Chinese construction firms during this dynamic transformation period. Based on a questionnaire survey and personal interviews with individuals from firms representing four major types of ownership, they provide a clear picture of the primary objectives and current practices of various Chinese construction firms regarding project procurement, project pricing, and competition. They also identify the factors that have put Chinese construction firms in their present difficult situation.
Styhre and Josephson address the work and function of site managers in construction projects. It appears from the general and light‐weight literature that middle managers are regarded as an endangered species; they are bound to disappear in so‐called post‐bureaucratic organizations. Using this discussion as the background, the authors show that, actually, site managers play a central role in the construction industry. Moreover, these managers enjoy their work, although they are increasingly concerned about the growth in their administrative workload.
High demands are being placed on the partitioning and fitting‐out of office buildings due to changing business operating patterns, a renewed focus on workplace comfort and health and the advancement of IT and communication tools. Research on raised floor systems (RFS) in the past has suggested that RFS can meet many of these new expectations. However, RFS has not been widely adopted as a fit‐out alternative, particularly in Australia. Zhang and Yang identify some of the main problems associated with RFS application. Their resulting checklist and recommendations, such as knowledge inputs and contracting strategy, provides a valid reference work and decision‐making guidance towards the use of RFS‐based construction technology for commercial buildings.
To attract private sector participation in BOT‐type infrastructure projects, host governments often provide concessions such as subsidies and guarantees. These concessions may be evaluated as a form of real options. Without proper quantification of the value of these options, negotiation of contract terms might take place on an unfair basis. Cheah and Liu illustrate the modelling and evaluation process of real options using Monte Carlo simulation of a discounted cash flow model. Based on a case study of a toll bridge that joins Malaysia and Singapore, they show that proper evaluation of a guarantee and a repayment option would promote a fairer reflection of a project's value to both the sponsor and the government.
Forthcoming papers
Nicola Costantino
The contribution of Ranko Bon to the debate on sustainable construction
Roberto Pietroforte and Tullio Gregori
Does volume follow share? The case of the Danish construction industry
Wai‐Ki Fu, Hing‐Po Lo and Derek S. Drew
Collective learning, collective knowledge and learning networks in construction
Hong Zhang
Multiple resource‐constrained construction scheduling based on particle swarm optimization
Martin Skitmore, Goran Runeson and Xinling Chang
Construction price formation: full‐cost pricing or neoclassical microeconomic theory?
Les Ruddock and Jorge Lopes
The construction sector and economic development: the ‘Bon curve’
Yu Song, Chun Liu and Craig Langston
Linkage measures of the construction sector using the hypothetical extraction method
Ronie Navon and O. Berkovich
An automated model for materials management and control
Low Sui Pheng and Hongbin Jiang
Analyzing ownership, locational and internalization advantages of Chinese construction MNCs using Rough Set Analysis
Sung Kin Pun, Chunlu Liu and Craig Langston
Case study of demolition costs of residential buildings
Philip McCann
On the supply side determinants of regional growth
Stuart Carmichael and Maria Murray
Record keeping for contemporaneous delay analysis: a model for effective event management
Florence T. T. Phua
When is construction partnering likely to happen? An empirical examination of the role of institution norms
Chen‐Yu Chang, Hui‐Yu Chou and Ming‐Teh Wang
Characterizing the corporate governance of UK listed construction companies
Gul Polat, David Arditi, Glenn Ballard and Ugur Mungen
Economics of on‐site versus off‐site fabrication of rebar
Erik Dietzenbacjer and Alex Hoen
Coefficient stability and predictability in input‐output models: a comparative analysis for the Netherlands
Rong‐yan Huang
A performance‐based bridge LCCA model using visual inspection inventory data
Robby Soetanto, Andrew Dainty, Jacqueline Glass and Andrew David Freeman Price
Towards an explicit design decision process: the case of the structural frame
Helen Lingard, Brenda Yip, Steve Rowlinson and Thomas Kvan
The experience of burnout among future construction professionals: a cross‐national study
Yu Song, Chunlu Liu and Craig Langston
Extending construction linkage measures by the consideration of the impact of capital
Timothy Lewis
Impact of globalisation on the construction sector in developing countries
Jasper Mbachu and Raymond Nkado
Factors constraining successful building project implementation in South Africa
Chrisna du Plessis
A strategic framework for sustainable construction in developing countries
Jill Wells
Informality in the construction sector in developing countries
Khalied Hyari and Khaled El‐Rayes
Field experiments to evaluate lighting performance in nighttime highway construction
Kevin Duncan, Peter Philips and Mark Prus
Prevailing wage legislation and public school construction efficiency: a stochastic frontier approach
Kevin Grosskopf and Charles Kibert
Economic incentive framework for sustainable energy use in U. S. residential construction
Gerard de Valence
Building as an economic process: the Austrian approach revisited
Irem Dikmen and M. Talat Burgonul
A review of international construction research: Ranko Bon's contribution
Philip Steadman
Allometry and built form: revisiting Ranko Bon's work with the Harvard philomorphs
Rafael Sacks and Michael Harel
An economic game theory model of subcontractor resource allocation behaviour
Johnny Wong, Philco N.K. Wong and Li Heng
An investigation of leadership styles and relationship cultures of Chinese and expatriate managers in multinational construction companies in Hong Kong
Ani Birgit Raidén, Andrew R.J. Dainty and Richard H. Neale
Balancing employee needs, project requirements and organisational priorities in team deployment
Susan M. Bogus, Keith R. Molenaar and James E. Diekmann Strategies for overlapping dependent design activities
Timothy Michael Lewis and Roger Hosein
An estimation of the size of the hidden labour force in Trinidad and Tobago
I‐Tung Yang
Using Gaussian copula to simulate repetitive projects
Mahdi H. Mattar and Charles Y.J. Cheah
Valuing large engineering projects under uncertainty: private risk effects and real options
Y. P. Poh and J. H. M. Tah
Integrated duration‐cost influence network for modelling risk impacts on construction tasks
David Shipworth
Qualitative modelling of sustainable energy scenarios: an extension of the Bon qualitative input‐output model
David Hawk
Conditions of Success: a platform for international construction development