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Bildsten, Louise; Manley, Karen
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1164325pmid: N/A
Purchasing on the part of a building construction company involves actors inside and outside the organization. These actors are driven by different motives that influence purchasing decisions in different situations. An explicit framework that assists in understanding the different purchasing situations would be of benefit to companies and researchers. Through a study of purchasing theory and practices, including interviews with a number of building construction companies, a framework of purchasing is proposed. The framework covers all stages in the purchasing process and focuses on four factors: (1) purchasing situations; (2) level of complexity; (3) active roles and (4) supply chain involvement. The inter-relationships between these factors are discussed from the perspective of the companies.
Hinton, Mark A.; Hamilton, Robert T.
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1170865pmid: N/A
How and why does the construction industry persist with competitive tendering as the dominant procurement model? This is a constructivist grounded theory view of construction industry procurement in New Zealand, explaining how industry actors have to behave. convenient immorality is a shared and accepted response by individuals intended to facilitate business outcomes within an environment of intense competition, driven by opportunism and asymmetric power relationships. Low trust due to convenient immorality behaviours will continue to frustrate attempts to replace competitive tendering as the dominant model for construction industry procurement.
Krystallis, I.; Demian, P.; Price, A.D.F
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1164326pmid: N/A
Future-proofing (FP) as a proactive initiative for asset management is an urgent need against uncertainty, particularly in health care due to unforeseeable demographic shifts and rapid advances in medical technology. Building information modelling (BIM) is a data-driven initiative, but a rigorous analysis between them will indicate that a synergy exists. The aim of this study is to develop a classification ontology of the interactions between FP and BIM by considering the perceptions of health care construction experts. Interviews with 13 senior managers were conducted adopting the method of interpretative phenomenological analysis and an interaction matrix of BIM capabilities for implementing holistic FP objectives has been developed. The outcome is a taxonomy analysis of 30 interactions with supporting empirical evidence which was further measured quantitatively. For benefits realization in the context of BIM and FP, the industry experts recognize FP as a strategy that supports organizational and building performance. BIM drives towards life cycle operation information and data maintainability via communicating the FP strategy from a whole-life perspective and ensuring knowledge transfer across all stages. Health care Operators and construction experts should be able to benefit from this taxonomy analysis as an aid to planning for FP throughout their BIM processes.
Chand, Anumitra Mirti; Loosemore, Martin
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1165856pmid: N/A
Hospitals play a critical role in helping communities respond effectively to extreme weather events (EWEs). Despite predictions of more EWEs, little is known about the process by which hospital infrastructure resilience to such events can be built. Using Gunderson and Holling’s Adaptive Cycle, a new theoretical perspective based on socio-ecological resilience theory is provided to understand this process. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observations of disaster drills and disaster planning meetings, as well as additional documentary analysis of past incident reports. The research findings were then refined and validated in a focus group meeting with respondents. The findings indicate that there are significant organizational barriers which prevent facilities managers improving the resilience of hospital facilities to future EWEs. It was found that the disaster planning process is ad hoc and non-inclusive, focused on man-made disasters and compliance driven, top-down approach, under-resourced and is driven by a general ignorance of the importance of resilient-built facilities to health care delivery during an EWE. It is concluded that to produce more resilient hospital infrastructure, there needs to be a more well-resourced, integrated and collaborative approach to disaster management planning which enables health facilities managers to play a more central role in disaster planning decisions. There also need to be better systems, technologies and training implemented to manage information about health infrastructure performance before, during and after EWEs.
Rajeh, Mohammed A.; Tookey, John E.; Rotimi, James Olabode Bamidele
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1151538pmid: N/A
The choice of an appropriate procurement system is crucial to construction project success. Procurement selection is largely based on path determination charts, with at least eight key criteria needing to be weighted by decision-makers. Including certain criteria whilst ignoring client-borne transaction costs (TCs) resulting from environmental uncertainties simplifies this process. TCs are ‘unseen’ costs associated with pre- and post-contract work. The effects of uncertainties in the transaction environment and procurement systems on TCs are investigated, comparing the traditional and design-build procurement systems. A cross-sectional sample approach was deployed, involving survey questionnaire and results verification through ‘real-world’ cases. Data was sought from construction professionals in management, design and operation of construction projects. The research participants evaluate their time spent on procurement activities using a five-point Likert scale. Hypotheses of the relations between environmental uncertainties, procurement systems, and pre- and post-contract TCs are tested using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The study found that TCs account for about 46.75% and 42.88% of the daily time spent by project managers in traditional and design-build procurement systems in New Zealand respectively. The study concludes that the TC concept is a useful framework for determining objective instead of subjective opinions for procurement decisions.
doi: 10.1080/01446193.2016.1167927pmid: N/A
Infrastructure that goes unused – for example, after constructing the first water, electricity, sewers or road infrastructure in an infrastructure-poor community – is a common issue in new infrastructure development in the global south. In this case, while infrastructure has diffused, it has not become institutionalized. To better understand this problem, photo-elicitation methods are used to explore cultural-cognitive frames used by research respondents as they create and explain photograph symbols that represent change in their built environment. For example, respondents advocate for infrastructure they have reason to believe outsiders will provide as they evaluate the infrastructure against local utility in an early phase of institutionalization. Respondents also frame the research undertaking as an opportunity to actively diffuse infrastructure practices they have recently adopted themselves. By making these and other frames explicit, the photo-elicitation method reveals the elusive cultural-cognitive pillar of institutionalization and also provides insight into sources of self-reporting bias. The method also has particular advantages for research dealing with disadvantaged respondents, reduces issues of free recall bias and increases the length and depth of research interviews. Given the relative novelty of this method in construction research, its theory, advantages and limitations are discussed in some depth.
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