Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important topic for modern firms. Huang and Lien report on the impact of CSR on organizational performance. They wanted to determine whether these effects could be mediated by corporate image. Using a questionnaire-based survey to measure CSR, corporate image, and overall organizational performance in Taiwan’s construction industry, their analysis suggests that CSR is positively correlated with corporate image and organizational performance. Corporate image may serve as a mediator between CSR and organizational performance. This means that investing in corporate image produces tangible results for CSR, even if the company already has a positive corporate image. The empirical evidence for this is shown by the demonstration of a CSR implementation. The findings of this research may encourage the construction industry in Taiwan and around the world to be more enthusiastic about CSR. As well as improving the sustainability of the industry and the built environment, CSR also improves profits.
Rose and Manley explore the dynamics underlying obstacles to product innovation in Australian road infrastructure projects. Despite the significant impact of innovation on industry performance, there remain challenges in adopting innovative products in construction. In light of these challenges, Rose and Manley identify key obstacles that constrain the implementation of innovative products, interpreted through an open innovation construct. Drawing on a pilot case study of the innovation network, early evidence suggests the usefulness of the open innovation construct that integrates three conceptual lenses: network governance, absorptive capacity and knowledge intermediation, in order to interpret product innovation obstacles in the context of Australian road projects. As a practical contribution, the authors also provide advice for government and industry organizations aiming to encourage the flow of innovative product knowledge across the project network. Notably, the selected delivery system was found to have a significant impact on the adoption of innovative products, emphasizing the need for greater attention towards incentives that encourage goal alignment, tender selection processes focusing on objectives other than price alone, and relationship management mechanisms that drive cooperation and innovation knowledge-sharing.
Greenwood and Wu consider the influence of collaborative working on project performance. In the UK, since around 1990, it has become commonplace to suggest that collaborative project procurement and execution methods go some way to alleviating some of the industry’s well-publicized problems. However, as they point out, there is a need to separate rhetoric from reality and to look for real evidence of a link between collaborative working and actual performance. The authors operationalized these two ‘headline’ concepts into a number of measurable attributes and indicators which were then explored with client and contractor representatives on 44 individual projects. The study was regionally-based within the UK and restricted to medium-sized building projects, with a roughly equal balance between public and private sector clients. Clear associations were found between the headline concepts. There are potentially instructive findings relating to which attributes of collaborative working impact most, and upon which indicators of project performance.
Thomson, Kaka, Pronk and Alalouch address the elicitation and modelling of collective stakeholder understanding of intangible concepts. Illustrated by an exploration of the benefits sought by stakeholders in the creation of a new healthcare building, they discover that the freelisting technique of cultural anthropology is effective in this role. By proposing and comparatively implementing two analysis protocols that alternatively balance the need for rigour with the practical constraints on opportunities to engage stakeholders, insights into freelisting validity are developed. By implementing different approaches to modelling collective understanding of the intangible concept of ‘benefits’, they characterize the insight yielded by both protocols. They contribute the methods for replication by others in similar situations where collective, tacit understanding of an amorphous concept must be modelled and stakeholder engagement opportunities are limited. The protocol selected should reflect the balance between rigour and workability required.