| 1. |
- Widén, Kristian, et al.
(författare)
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Links between Successful Innovation Diffusion and Stakeholder Engagement
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - Reston, VA : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 30:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Stakeholders can positively assist or hinder attempts at innovation. Much depends on the nature of their engagement. The stakeholder engagement process can be complex and unpredictable, more so if no strategic plan is put in place or if no systematic thinking is invested in the innovation. Stakeholder engagement in the innovation process in general and innovation diffusion in particular is examined in the context of construction. From a theoretical perspective, analysis of the effect of stakeholders could be expected to help in refining the innovation process so that it produces decisions and outcomes more likely to lead to successful innovation and diffusion. To cover diverse applications from product development to the drafting and implementation of national standards, 19 innovation projects were studied. Through a statistical analysis of stakeholder involvement, based on a Fisher's exact test, it was concluded that a structured process of engagement has to be an integral part of the innovation process. Accordingly, an explicit plan for communication and engagement with identified key stakeholders is necessary ex ante as a condition for successful innovation and diffusion. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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| 2. |
- Larsson, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Leadership in Civil Engineering: Effects of Project Managers’ Leadership Styles on Project Performance
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 31:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Successful completion of a construction project requires the ability to coordinate activities of numerous individuals participating in tasks that often have high levels of complexity and uncertainty. Thus, the project manager plays crucial roles, often setting the ground rules and fostering a collective approach that strongly influence project performance. However, there are uncertainties regarding various aspects of project managers’ influence, particularly related to their leadership style. Thus, the research reported in this paper explores the degrees to which leadership styles affect project outcome and specific leadership styles are appropriate in specific types of situations. The analysis is based on a questionnaire survey of views of 162 project managers employed by the largest public infrastructure client in Sweden. The results indicate that project performance (in terms of cost, time, and quality) is affected by leadership, suggesting that the project manager’s leadership style is a significant project success factor. Further, the results show that certain styles are appropriate in different situations, highlighting the importance of a contingency perspective
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| 3. |
- Algan, Tezel, et al.
(författare)
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Insights into Blockchain Implementation in Construction : Models for Supply Chain Management
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 37:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The interest in the implementation of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) is on the rise in the construction sector. One specific type of DLT that has recently attracted much attention is blockchain. Blockchain has been mostly discussed conceptually for construction to date. This study presents some empirical discussions on supply chain management (SCM) applications of blockchain for construction by collecting feedback for three blockchain-based models: project bank accounts (PBAs) for payments, reverse auction–based tendering for bidding, and asset tokenization for project financing. The feedback was collected from three focus groups and a workshop. The working prototypes for the models were developed on Ethereum. The implementation of blockchain in payment arrangements was found to be simpler than in tendering and project tokenization workflows. However, the blockchain integration of those workflows may have large-scale impacts on the sector in the future. A broad set of general and model-specific benefits/opportunities and requirements/challenges was also identified for blockchain in construction. Some of these include streamlined, transparent transactions and rational trust building, and the need for challenging the sector culture, upscaling the legacy information technology (IT) systems, and compliance with the regulatory structures.
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| 4. |
- Hetemi, Ermal, Senior Lecturer in Organisation and Leadership, et al.
(författare)
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Embeddedness and Actors’ Behaviors in Large-Scale Project Life Cycle : Lessons Learned from a High-Speed Rail Project in Spain
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 36:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite wide-ranging research on large-scale infrastructure project performance, little is known about the role that project public institutional context and project owner’s response capability plays in the governing process. Building on a theoretically driven approach and a case study, we first established a set of propositions and then substantiated this set through empirical illustrations. This study investigated the multiactor Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line (HSL) project (1990–2017) with the use of social network analysis supplemented by qualitative evidence. The findings show that actors’ behavior is affected by the project public institutional context, coupled with contractual commitments. A closer examination of the data found two factors that drive the escalation dynamics: (1) the timing mismatches—a ubiquitous feature of public sector project owner’s organization—leading to the incapacity to influence governance during the project front-end and (2) owner’s passive behavior during implementation. From the management perspective, an active owner with high project response capability is necessary for effectively interacting with contractors, and for selecting and managing both contractual and trust-based governance mechanisms effectively. Based on the findings, the authors offer theoretical and managerial implications for promoting the effectiveness of owner-contractor collaboration in large-scale infrastructure projects.
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| 5. |
- Hetemi, Ermal, et al.
(författare)
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Embeddedness and Actors’ Behaviors in Large-Scale Project Life Cycle: Lessons Learned from a High-Speed Rail Project in Spain
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 36:6, s. 05020014-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite wide-ranging research on large-scale infrastructure project performance, little is known about the role that project public institutional context and project owner’s response capability plays in the governing process. Building on a theoretically driven approach and a case study, we first established a set of propositions and then substantiated this set through empirical illustrations. This study investigated the multiactor Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line (HSL) project (1990–2017) with the use of social network analysis supplemented by qualitative evidence. The findings show that actors’ behavior is affected by the project public institutional context, coupled with contractual commitments. A closer examination of the data found two factors that drive the escalation dynamics: (1) the timing mismatches—a ubiquitous feature of public sector project owner’s organization—leading to the incapacity to influence governance during the project front-end and (2) owner’s passive behavior during implementation. From the management perspective, an active owner with high project response capability is necessary for effectively interacting with contractors, and for selecting and managing both contractual and trust-based governance mechanisms effectively. Based on the findings, the authors offer theoretical and managerial implications for promoting the effectiveness of owner-contractor collaboration in large-scale infrastructure projects.
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| 6. |
- Osipova, Ekaterina
(författare)
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Establishing Cooperative Relationships and Joint Risk Management in Construction Projects: Agency Theory Perspective
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 31:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Through construction contracts, clients and contractors are involved in principal-agent relationships. These relationships are argued to be adversarial and characterised by two main features of contracting parties, as follows: (1) different goals, and (2) different attitudes to risk. Agency-related problems contribute to the project participants concentrating on risks associated with their own parts of projects instead of joint risk management (JRM). Fewer studies have discussed JRM, although risk-sharing is a key issue in principal-agent relationships and agency-related problems must be effectively addressed to establish strong collaboration. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate how project participants address problems associated with principal-agent relationships and thereby enhance cooperative relationships (and JRM). The empirical findings are based on two longitudinal case studies and show that strong collaboration is a multidimensional activity that is crucial for JRM. Effective JRM is highly dependent on strategies for fostering relationships and collaboration (such as cooperative procurement, establishment of common goals, and open communication), and should be implemented together with these strategies.
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| 7. |
- Pesämaa, Ossi, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Role of Performance Feedback on Process Performance in Construction Projects : Client and Contractor Perspectives
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 34:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study addressed a perceived research gap by examining the role of performance feedback in construction process performance from both client and contractor perspectives using a database of unprecedented scale, with 2,175 sets of observations (expressed views of 579 clients and 1,596 contractors involved in diverse Swedish construction projects). Following validation of latent concepts by multigroup assessment of responses across the two groups (clients and contractors), using confirmatory factor analysis, this enabled robust tests of evidence of structural paths (potentially causal or mediating relationships) embedded in both groups’ responses. The results confirmed, with unprecedented clarity, that performance feedback has significant, direct positive effects on construction process performance, and that performance feedback mediates (i.e., strengthens) effects of learning and collaboration on process performance.
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| 8. |
- Sukanthan Rajendra, Darmicka, et al.
(författare)
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Key Dimensions of the Technical Readiness of Small Construction Businesses That Determine Their Intention to Use ICTs
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - Reston, VA : American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 38:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While information communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to significantly improve construction project outcomes for small builders, their take up is relatively poor as they often face severe resource constraints. Previous construction studies have examined a range of adoption determinants, but there has been no previous research into how much small construction businesses' readiness to use ICTs predicts their intention to use ICTs-readiness being assessed by reviewing the business management's beliefs about ICTs, which are argued herein to have an important influence on the use of ICTs. The widely validated technology readiness (TR) model is used to test four hypotheses concerning the relationship between small builders' readiness and intention to use ICTs in project management. Data from an online survey of 110 small Australian builders were analyzed, with six semi-structured expert interviews later conducted to help validate and interpret the results and provide some context-specific interpretation of the quantitative results. The main finding is that the readiness dimensions of optimism, innovativeness, and insecurity are key determinants of small construction businesses' intention to use ICTs. Thus, this study shows that the use of ICTs is largely dependent on management's beliefs about their benefits and the risks involved. This is particularly significant, because small businesses contribute a large proportion of industry output. © 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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| 9. |
- Westin, Soffi, et al.
(författare)
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Improving Data Quality in Construction Engineering Projects: An Action Design Research Approach
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 30:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The topic of data and information quality (DQ/IQ) is a longstanding issue of interest in both academia and practice in the construction engineering field. Poor DQ/IQ has led to poor engineering drawings that, in turn, have led to delays and eventuality to cost overruns. In this paper, we report a study that took an Action Design Research (ADR) approach to develop and evaluate a DQ/IQ assessment tool, which we call Information Quality System (IQS), in a large global engineering and construction company. The evaluation was performed by comparing the level of DQ/IQ in a project that used IQS with two projects that did not use the tool. The result is encouraging: the DQ/IQ in the project using IQS was significantly higher overall than in the two other projects. The implication is that a tool based on the design principles on which IQS was built is likely to help improve DQ/IQ in engineering systems and, hence, in engineering drawings. Consequently, it will decrease project delays and cost overruns. More generally, our paper adds to the discourse in the literature on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the construction context. Our paper illustrates another successful application of action-oriented research that can solve practical problems while generating academic knowledge. In taking a design approach, we augment the literature on the use of action research in construction engineering and management.
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| 10. |
- Eriksson, Per Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Partnering the construction of a Swedish pharmaceutical plant : case study
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering. - 0742-597X .- 1943-5479. ; 24:4, s. 227-233
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years increased interest in cooperative arrangements, such as partnering, has been noticeable in the construction industry in many countries. To facilitate cooperative relationships many aspects of the traditional procurement procedures need to be changed. The research presented in this paper offers an analysis that compares empirically observed partnering procurement procedures with conceptual prescriptions provided by a transaction cost economics framework. The empirical illustration shows that the case client has reduced the focus on price and authority and instead facilitated a relationship based on trust and cooperation, through procurement procedures involving joint specification, limited bid invitation, bid evaluation based on soft parameters, joint selection of subcontractors, standard contracts coupled with relational norms, usage of collaborative tools, and contractor self-control. The procurement procedures chosen result in a governance form rather similar to the one prescribed by the conceptual model. Furthermore, the project participants are satisfied with the project result and also consider the procurement procedures performed suitable. Hence, the results provide both theoretical and empirical support to the implementation of partnering procurement procedures in construction projects characterized by high complexity and uncertainty
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| 11. |
- Min, J. U., et al.
(författare)
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Agent-based construction supply chain simulator (CS2) for measuring the value of real-time information sharing in construction
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering - ASCE. - 0742-597X. ; 24:4, s. 245-254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an agent-based construction supply chain simulator (CS2) that leverages computer agents technology for modeling a virtual construction supply chain. Although construction managers and contractors do not consciously consider a supply chain and its management, they all interact with the members of a supply chain and make related decisions. Having real-time information available at any time can increase information transparency, which in turn makes it easier for project managers to identify potential risks. CS2 is a modified version of the beer game that has been widely used for illustrating the importance of real-time information in the manufacturing process. Two different types of simulations are presented in this paper, namely human-to-human and computer-to-human interactive simulation. In the simulations, a group of people play different roles, as does the current practice in construction. Results of this simulation test and verify the significance of real-time information sharing in construction. In addition, how the quantity of information affects the value of real-time information using the concept of illusion in cognitive science is investigated. The developed CS2 can be further used for educational purposes as well as for addressing the valuable lesson of real-time information sharing to practitioners.
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| 12. |
- Gschösser, Florian, et al.
(författare)
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Hidden Ecological Potentials in the Production of Materials for Swiss Road Pavements
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Management in Engineering - ASCE. - 0742-597X. ; 27:1, s. 13-21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainability has become a major concern in the field of civil infrastructures in recent years. Developing road construction projects with lower ecological impacts over a project’s entire life cycle can help in making road infrastructure contribute to sustainable development. This study focuses on the ecological potentials in the production of road materials used in Swiss road pavements. The environmental assessment was performed using a cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach in which all processes from the raw material extraction to the finished product were considered. The comparison of the results of the best-case asphalt pavement and the standard asphalt pavement for Swiss highway construction shows ecological potentials of up to 55%. Use of the best-case concrete pavement lowers the environmental impact by up to 53% in comparison to the worst-case concrete pavement for Swiss highways. Concerning composite pavements, the best-case variant offers an ecological potential 38% higher than the standard pavement.
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