Construction Management & Economics

Gustavsson, Tina Karrbom

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1464197pmid: N/A

AbstractIndustries have to adapt to changes in external environment. This adaption includes the development of new professional roles that challenge established structures, roles and communities of practice. In order to better understand the unfolding of construction project practice in an increasingly changeful world new professional roles are explored as liminal roles. The studied professional roles are partnering manager, building logistic specialist and BIM coordinator. Liminality is used as framework to understand descriptions of liminal experiences when negotiating boundary interfaces in construction project practice. Findings are both theoretical and practical and suggest that new professional roles practice multi-liminal work and acknowledge tensions that pose challenges for liminal roles to act as change agents.

Wang, Bing; Zhang, Shuibo; Wang, Xiuqin; Feng, Zhuo

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1468079pmid: N/A

AbstractPublic–private partnerships (PPPs) involve many different participants, and the equity allocation between them may influence the performance of PPP projects. While the optimal capital structure and equity capital structure of the project company have been extensively investigated, few studies have examined how to allocate equity shares among different private participants. Considering both public and private benefits, this study focuses on the optimal equity structure between construction contractor (CC) and operating contractor (OC). A game model is used to analyze how quality benefit and marginal contribution of CC and OC’s effort affect the optimal equity structure. The findings reveal that the private consortium expects the party (CC or OC) with higher marginal contribution of effort to own more equity shares, while government expects the party (CC or OC) with lower marginal contribution of effort to own more equity shares. Furthermore, a non-linear relationship between the optimal equity structure and government’s bargaining power is found. The results also manifest that the quality benefit of construction on operation is a nontrivial factor when designing the equity structure. If unconsidered, the CC’s optimal equity ratio will be either undervalued (when a higher construction quality can reduce the operating cost) or overvalued (when a higher construction quality can increase the operating cost). These findings can provide some insights into designing the equity structure for PPP projects in the bidding process.

Fellows, Richard F.; Liu, Anita M. M.

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1472386pmid: N/A

AbstractEarly stage decisions have the greatest impact on construction projects and so, attention at conception and realization of projects is imperative. Decisions are influenced by actors’ interdependencies, thus, it is important to understand how actors determine meanings of their situations and actions. Meaning is derived from situational cues that are contextually bounded and, through actions, determines decisions’ outcomes via sensemaking. The objectives of this critical essay are to examine the impact of motivated reasoning on sensemaking and, thus, decision-making through scrutinising how actors make sense of projects and contexts to yield meanings. The focus of the discussion is on the human interactional aspects of decisions to examine potential bias, effected through the vague goals held by the actors, and the assumption of rationality, extending to bounded rationality, and how that leads to traps/pitfalls in decision-making. The discussion encompasses the concepts of sensemaking and of motivated reasoning in construction decisions from the perspectives of the dominant logic and the dynamic states of flux in the construction environment – in particular, the aspects of open-mindedness and directional bias, over-optimism, and attitudinal predispositions which impact on motivated reasoning of decision-makers in construction projects. This essay concludes that motivated reasoning, as a bias vector, operates to influence how actors arrive at understandings, reach decisions and behave to generate outcomes. The motivated reasoning perspective gives insight into the nature of decision-making in many project processes and the outcomes achieved.

Lavikka, Rita; Kallio, Johanna; Casey, Thomas; Airaksinen, Miimu

doi: 10.1080/01446193.2018.1476729pmid: N/A

AbstractDecision-makers in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry lack knowledge about the implementation of digitalization to generate value. We applied a scenario planning method developed by Schoemaker and Mavaddat to provide decision-makers with information for using digital data and technologies to create value for customers. We aim to theoretically understand how the scenario planning process helps AEC decision-makers to make sense of the future. Our findings show that boundary spanners are needed for steering the discussions among industry actors towards shared knowledge about the technological, social, economic and political changes needed at the industry level to optimize the benefits of digitalization. Our findings also show that boundary spanners apply scenario figures as boundary objects to cross knowledge boundaries. Based on our findings, we theoretically conceptualize scenario planning as a boundary-spanning activity that enables AEC decision-makers from different fields to share tacit knowledge and to cross knowledge boundaries. The practical implication is that scenario planning provides a method for AEC decision-makers to make sense of the changes needed to realize the preferred future for the industry.