Portuguese Construction Research Articles

As construções de movimento causado e ditransitiva: elos de polissemia

RESUMO Este trabalho compara duas construções de estrutura argumental do Português Brasileiro - as construções de movimento causado e ditransitiva - para investigar seus elos de polissemia, com base em aspectos sintáticos, semânticos e pragmáticos que elas possam compartilhar. Segundo Goldberg (1995), as construções tipicamente se associam a uma família de sentidos distintos mas relacionados, formando uma rede inter-relacionada. Esse parece ser o caso das construções focalizadas aqui. A análise de instâncias reais dessas construções mostrou que elas compartilham o mesmo padrão sintático, embora tenham significados diferentes.

EXPLORING MARKETING STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURAL SERVICES: THE CASE OF THE ARCHITECTURE FIRMS IN PORTUGAL

This paper explores the importance of marketing as a factor of competitive advantage for architectural service firms. Through an interpretative approach, three different stakeholders are interviewed: customers, potential customers, and architects. Besides the economic retraction that affects the Portuguese construction sector since the last decade, other reasons for a poor activity from architectural service firms in Portugal are identified. One of the main reasons seems to be related to the lack of awareness from consumers on what architectural services consist of and on the importance of architecture in their lives. Findings also indicate the absence, in most firms investigated, of an integrated marketing strategy that comprises decisions at the level of differentiation, customer orientation, relationship management, and marketing programs. The paper outlines strategic routes and practices for architectural service firms.

Consequential Constructions in Contemporary European Portuguese: A Contribution

The aim of this study is to provide an integrated description of consequential constructions in European contemporary Portuguese, relating their syntactic, semantic and pragmatic behavior. It will be argued that the discourse segment introduced by the connectives consequentemente, de forma que, dai (que), de modo que, por isso, assim can be analyzed in terms of a supplement (Huddleston & Pullum 2002), not syntactically integrated with its anchor, but semantically related to it. Semantically, consequential constructions may be paraphrased by causal ones involving an adverbial subordinate clause. But, unlike causal constructions, consequential ones connect two distinct speech acts. The suppression of the consequential connective may trigger two different readings, but it will be argued that, for pragmatic reasons (Levinson 2000), the preferential reading is still the consequential one.

An Analytical Approach to the Ventilation Effectiveness of Mediterranean Buildings. Case Study: Existing Residential Building, Portugal

Building airtightness assumes an important role in the energy saving and the indoor thermal comfort. Ventilation rates bring significant impacts on energy usage in the constructions and indoor contaminant concentrations and also setting them as the key parameters in building performance.Ventilation rate have been measured in building for a long time, and there are some developed measurement methodologies related to it in the research domains. However, most of the investigations in recent years have been done usually in the cold climate conditions, while Mediterranean construction are not deeply investigated in the literature.In this paper, the authors present the obtained results of an experimental research which is carried out on the Portuguese residential buildings. The investigation is done by fan pressurization methods, also known as “Blower Door Test (BDT)” as the measurement method as well as Design Builder (DB) as the simulation software. The airtightness measurement of the existing buildings and the influence of air leakage on energy consumption and indoor comfort in different Portuguese construction typologies are focused on the aim of the research.The important parameters of the building such as whole-building air change rates, building infiltration rates, and ventilation effectiveness rate in the residential building are also considered in this research.

Measuring Inefficiency for Specific Inputs Using Data Envelopment Analysis: Evidence from Construction Industry in Spain and Portugal

This article contributes to the efficiency literature by defining, in the context of the data envelopment analysis framework, the directional distance function approach for measuring both technical and scale inefficiencies with regard to the use of individual inputs. The input-specific technical and scale inefficiencies are then aggregated in order to calculate the overall inefficiency measures. Empirical application focuses on a large dataset of Spanish and Portuguese construction companies between 2002 and 2010 and accounts for three inputs: materials, labor and fixed assets. The results show, first, that for both Spanish and Portuguese construction companies, fixed assets are the most technically inefficient input. Second, the most inefficient scale concerns the utilization of material input in both samples; the reason for this inefficiency is that firms tend to operate in the increasing returns to scale portion of technology set. Third, in both samples, large firms have the lowest input-specific technical inefficiencies, but the highest input-specific scale inefficiencies, compared to their small and medium-sized counterparts, and tend to suffer from decreasing returns to scale. Finally, in both samples, input-specific technical inefficiency under constant returns to scale increased during the period of the recent financial crisis, mainly due to the augmentation in scale inefficiency.

Determinants of brand relevance in a B2B service purchasing context

Purpose – Brands have traditionally been regarded as a key asset and a source of competitive advantage in purchasing decisions, as customers are expected to prefer stronger brands to minimize risks. However, the role of brands in business markets is unclear and underresearched. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relevance of brands in a business-to-business (B2B) purchase setting and their key determinants. Design Methodology/approach – A research model was developed to explain brand relevance when compared with other decision factors in a B2B context. Based on the frameworks developed by Zablah et al. (2010) and Mudambi (2002), the model considers the purchase situation, decision-maker characteristics and firm size as determinants of brand relevance in the decision-making process. One of the most prominent Portuguese construction groups, which comprised three companies, was chosen for the sample of this study. Data were collected through a self-administered, online, cross-sectional survey, resulting in a convenience sample of 87 decision-makers. Findings – Findings suggest that attributes related with brands matter even in B2B rational decision-making processes. However, brands are not important to all organizational buyers or in all situations. Different purchase situations and decision-maker characteristics proved to have an impact on brand relevance, namely, brand reputation, prior purchases and brand awareness. Only firm size was not confirmed as a determinant of brand relevance in the B2B purchasing process. Originality/value – B2B brand research is scarce, especially for industrial services. By investigating the determinants of brand relevance in a B2B purchasing context, namely, in a construction services setting, this study contributes to bridging this literature gap. Moreover, the few studies on the subject have been largely descriptive in nature and managerially oriented, while this investigation emphasizes hypothesis testing through a proposed research framework. Also, in managerial terms, identifying determinants of the importance given to brands by organizational buyers is critical in deciding when investment in brand development is more likely to payoff.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS CERTIFICATION: INSIGHTS FROM PORTUGUESE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

Against a background of growing concern with environmental issues, resource consumption and waste production in the construction sector, this article presents the results of a study on the implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) certification in Portuguese construction companies. It reports on how construction companies perceive motives, difficulties, benefits and effectiveness of implementing EMS certification. A questionnaire served as the basis for data collection. It was sent to all certified construction companies listed in the IPAC (Portuguese Accreditation Institute). Results show that reasons for companies to use environmental certification go beyond legislated environmental requirements. Although some differences can be noted between large and small companies, certification is regarded as a process in which the benefits outweigh the costs, particularly in relation to increased recycling of raw materials. There are significant difficulties in the availability of human and financial resources, mainly in smaller companies. The main factors to ensure effectiveness of environmental certification are the commitment and support of top management, the establishment of clear environmental objectives consistent with environmental policy, training, time availability and raising awareness among all employees.

Metaheuristics, Data Mining and Geographic Information Systems for Earthworks Equipment Allocation

Optimal and sustainable allocation of equipment in earthwork tasks is a complex problem that requires the study of several different aspects, as well as the knowledge of a large number of factors. In truth, earthworks are comprised by a combination of repetitive, sequential, and interdependent activities based on heavy mechanical equipment (i.e., resources), such as excavators, dumper trucks, bulldozers and compactors. In order to optimally allocate the available resources, knowledge regarding their specifications (e.g., capacity, weight, horsepower) and the work conditions to which they will be subjected (e.g., material types, required and available volumes in embankment and excavation fronts, respectively) is essential. This knowledge can be translated into the productivity (i.e., work rate) of each piece of equipment when working under a specific set of conditions. Moreover, since earthwork tasks are inherently sequential and interdependent, the interaction between the allocated equipment must be taken into account. A typical example of this is the need for matching the work rate of an excavator team with the capacity of a truck team to haul the excavated material to the embankment fronts.Given the non-trivial characteristics of the earthwork allocation problem, conventional Operation Research (e.g., linear programming) and blind search methods are infeasible. As such, a potential solution is to adopt metaheuristics – modern optimization methods capable of searching large search space regions under a reasonable use of computational resources. While this may address the issue of optimizing such a complex problem, the lack of knowledge regarding optimization parameters under different work conditions, such as equipment productivity, calls for a different approach. Bearing in mind the availability of large databases, including in the earthworks area, that have been gathered in recent years by construction companies, technologies like data mining (DM) come forward as ideal tools for solving this problem. Indeed, the learning capabilities of DM algorithms can be applied to databases embodying the productivity of several equipment types when subjected to different work conditions. The extracted knowledge can then be used to estimate the productivity of the available equipment under similar work conditions. Furthermore, as previously referred, since earthwork tasks include the material hauling from excavation to embankment fronts, it also becomes imperative to analyze and optimize the possible transportation networks. In this context, the use of geographic information systems (GIS) provides an easy method to study the possible trajectories for transportation equipment in a construction site, ultimately allowing for a choice of the best paths to improve the workflow.This paper explores the advantages of integrating the referred technologies, among others, in order to allow for a sustainable management of earthworks. This is translated in the form of an evolutionary multi-criteria optimization system, capable of searching for the best allocation of the available equipment that minimizes a set of goals (e.g., cost, duration, environmental impact). Results stemming from the validation of the resulting system using real-world data from a Portuguese construction site demonstrate the potential and importance of using this kind of technologies for a sustainable management and optimization of earthworks.

Is the construction industry aware of supply chain management? The Portuguese contractors’ perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the understanding and behaviour of construction companies in relation to supply chain management (SCM) and how those relationships can impact the adoption of the SCM concept. Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopted a descriptive study method based on a cross-section survey. A literature review and focus group interviews were used to design the survey questionnaire. The focus group interviews were also used to discuss the results of the survey and draw conclusions. Findings – The results show that the global awareness level of SCM and the relationships level among the entities in the Portuguese construction industry are low, which is in alignment with previous research work. These results also show that SCM in the construction industry is a complex task due to the fact that the relationships between the entities are different, and also often contractors and subcontractors change roles from project-to-project. Research limitations/implications – The limited number of valid responses in the research, particularly when considering categories based on the size of the contractors, can be considered a major limitation of this research, which might have reduced the quality of the statistic tests performed. Practical implications – Construction companies should foster a proper understanding of “the language” and core concepts underpinning SCM practices and should pay particular attention to a systemic and network perspective, avoiding the traditional focus on the management of dyadic relationships. Accordingly, care must be taken to avoid the “simple and direct” transfer of the SCM concept to the construction sector. Originality/value – This paper provides contributions to understanding the awareness of SCM within the construction industry and to the field of SCM, confirming that it is the specifics, and not the context, of the construction sector that are not well-adapted to the assumptions underpinning SCM and related concepts.

A nonparametric methodology for evaluating convergence in a multi-input multi-output setting

This paper presents a novel nonparametric methodology to evaluate convergence in an industry, considering a multi-input multi-output setting for the assessment of total factor productivity. In particular, we develop two new indexes to evaluate σ-convergence and β-convergence that can be computed using nonparametric techniques such as Data Envelopment Analysis. The methodology developed is particularly useful to enhance productivity assessments based on the Malmquist index. The methodology is applied to a real world context, consisting of a sample of Portuguese construction companies that operated in the sector between 2008 and 2010. The empirical results show that Portuguese companies tended to converge, both in the sense of σ and β, in all construction activity segments in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

An evolutionary multi-objective optimization system for earthworks

Earthworks involve the leveling or shaping of a target area through the moving or processing of the ground surface. Most construction projects require earthworks, which are heavily dependent on mechanical equipment (e.g., excavators, trucks and compactors). Often, earthworks are the most costly and time-consuming component of infrastructure constructions (e.g., road, railway and airports) and current pressure for higher productivity and safety highlights the need to optimize earthworks, which is a nontrivial task. Most previous attempts at tackling this problem focus on single-objective optimization of partial processes or aspects of earthworks, overlooking the advantages of a multi-objective and global optimization. This work describes a novel optimization system based on an evolutionary multi-objective approach, capable of globally optimizing several objectives simultaneously and dynamically. The proposed system views an earthwork construction as a production line, where the goal is to optimize resources under two crucial criteria (costs and duration) and focus the evolutionary search (non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II) on compaction allocation, using linear programming to distribute the remaining equipment (e.g., excavators). Several experiments were held using real-world data from a Portuguese construction site, showing that the proposed system is quite competitive when compared with current manual earthwork equipment allocation.

Measurement of input-specific productivity growth with an application to the construction industry in Spain and Portugal

Decision making in companies requires an assessment of the efficiency and productivity of individual inputs to provide insights into the scope for improvement of inputs׳ use. This paper estimates an input-specific Luenberger productivity growth indicator that can be decomposed to identify the contributions of input-specific technological change, technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change. These components for a specific input sum up to the aggregated indicators which are then compared with the traditional Luenberger indicator. The application focuses on panel data of Spanish and Portuguese construction firms over the period 2002–2011, accounting for three inputs: materials, labor and capital. The results show that aggregated productivity change and its components computed from the input-specific productivity indicator are different from those obtained using a traditional approach. The results also indicate that productivity change is negative for labor and capital for construction firms in both Spain and Portugal, while productivity change of materials is positive for Portugal and negative for Spain. Productivity decline is worse for capital in the Spanish construction firms, and for labor in Portugal.

Oraciones completivas de sustantivo: un análisis contrastivo entre portugués y español

El objetivo de este estudio es investigar la relación entre tres diferentes variantes de lo que se denomina la construcción encapsuladora (CxE) (Schmid 2000; Rodríguez Espiñeira 2010), es decir, las secuencias N de que-oración completiva, N que-oración completiva y N de + infinitivo. Se contrastan las tres variantes de la construcción en español y portugués con el fin de averiguar si existen diferencias significativas entre ambas lenguas, algo que cabe asumir teniendo en cuenta dos hechos diferenciadores: a) la ausencia del dequeísmo como tal en portugués y, b) la existencia del infinitivo flexionado en portugués. El análisis se basa en dos grandes corpus electrónicos, el Corpus del español (Davies 2002-) y el Corpus do portugués (Davies & Ferreira 2006-) y tiene como marco teórico la Gramática de construcciones (CxG). Así, el punto de partida son las secuencias N de que, N que y N de infinitivo, cuyos usos en las dos lenguas se investigan mediante el análisis colostruccional (Collostructional analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries 2003)). El análisis se concentra específicamente en los diferentes sustantivos que aparecen en la posición de núcleo de la CxE. Las diferencias en la combinatoria léxica de las tres variantes de la CxE se interpretan como indicios de divergencias y semejanzas entre ellas.DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/verba.42.1856

Public e-procurement impacts in small- and medium-enterprises

The European Union (EU) created directives to regulate the moving to full Public e-Procurement (Pe-P) for all public purchases by 2016. Despite the undisputable benefits, member states are lagging behind on this paradigm shift. Also Pe-P's scholarly evaluation and theoretical knowledge behind it are still very limited. This paper makes a contribution to the literature gap related to Pe-P's impacts providing preliminary evidence of its adoption in Portugal. Following a case-based approach involving interviews with managers from the Portuguese construction sector, our study aims to understand Pe-P's implementation benefits and barriers in small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs). Results provide relevant information regarding factors affecting Pe-P's adoption forecasting implications for private firms, platform providers and policy makers in the 2016 full moving to Pe-P's throughout the EU.

A life cycle assessment model for pavement management: methodology and computational framework

Despite the general consensus among stakeholders on how useful the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology can be in helping to reduce the environmental burdens of a road pavement, very few pavement LCA models have considered the entire pavement life cycle. This paper presents the development of a highly customisable LCA tool that provides an integrated, project-level approach that includes all six pavement life cycle phases. The developed tool encompasses six main modules, including extraction of raw materials and production; construction, maintenance and rehabilitation; transportation of materials; work-zone traffic management; usage; and end-of-life. Data regarding the Portuguese practise of pavement construction and management have been collected on site with certified Portuguese construction companies and complemented using published literature and databases. The research described in this paper provides a widely applicable pavement LCA model that will enable highway agencies, private companies and the construction industry to estimate emissions and environmental impacts during the project analysis period for road pavement. The use of the proposed tool for benchmarking current practises in pavement construction and management enhances the scientific basis for understanding where further efforts can be undertaken to promote sustainable pavement investment decisions.

Measurement and Sources of Input-Specific Productivity Growth: Evidence from Construction Industry in Spain and Portugal

Decision making in companies requires an assessment of the efficiency and productivity of individual inputs to provide insights into the scope for improvement of inputs׳ use. This paper estimates an input-specific Luenberger productivity growth indicator that can be decomposed to identify the contributions of input-specific technological change, technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change. These components for a specific input sum up to the aggregated indicators which are then compared with the traditional Luenberger indicator. The application focuses on panel data of Spanish and Portuguese construction firms over the period 2002-2011, accounting for three inputs: materials, labor and capital. The results show that aggregated productivity change and its components computed from the input-specific productivity indicator are different from those obtained using a traditional approach. The results also indicate that productivity change is negative for labor and capital for construction firms in both Spain and Portugal, while productivity change of materials is positive for Portugal and negative for Spain. Productivity decline is worse for capital in the Spanish construction firms, and for labor in Portugal.

GRADIÊNCIA E VARIAÇÃO NAS CONSTRUÇÕES DE FOCO NO PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO

Caracterizamos e exemplificamos oito diferentes tipos de construções clivadas no português brasileiro. Mostramos que as diferenças entre as construções, quanto a suas propriedades morfossintáticas, são de ordem quantitativa, o que explicaria sua potencial intercambialidade. Defendemos que algumas delas exibem um grau mais elevado de gramaticalidade e que servem a sinalização de foco em orações simples.

Young Portuguese construction of educational citizenship: commitments and conflicts in semi-disadvantaged secondary schools

This paper represents a contribution to ongoing debates in the Journal of Youth Studies concerning young adults, in particular, those that address young adult citizenship and ‘voice’ and which take into account the generational political, economic and cultural processes that both frame and shape their citizenship construction. The potential impact of the enactment of citizenship on the daily lives of young adults is at focus as we address the ways in which they express the attainment and desire for educational citizenship in their current lives, with particular emphasis on participation and the construction of knowledge. Educational citizenship of rights and knowledge is seen as a political and cultural right and as an opportunity. Young Portuguese adults were consulted in their final school year in semi-disadvantaged schools and regions. Consultation was supported on focus group discussion and individual in-depth interviews.

Competitive positioning and performance assessment in the construction industry

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the competitive positioning of the construction industry companies and evaluate their financial performance. The methodology proposed involves three major stages. The first stage concerns the identification of the competitive positioning of companies within the construction sector. This is achieved using a hierarchical clustering algorithm suitable for large datasets and mixed type variables. The second stage is the analysis of performance of the different clusters. This is done using the Data Envelopment Analysis technique. To characterize in detail the main performance features of each cluster, a decision tree is used to extract the main rules concerning the performance spread within each cluster and the gap between the cluster best practices and the national benchmarks. The third stage concerns the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses and areas of potential improvement for contractors in each competitive positioning. This required the analysis of benchmark companies of each cluster. The methodology proposed was applied for the analysis of performance of all contractors that operate in the Portuguese construction industry.

Success evaluation factors in construction project management — some evidence from medium and large Portuguese companies

The construction industry plays a very important role in the Portuguese economy. In 2009, it was among the top five economic sectors, representing 13% of total employment. Nevertheless, project failures are still frequent mainly due to inadequate management practices and to the intrinsic characteristics of projects of the construction industry. Even though Portuguese construction has improved in recent years, cost and schedule overruns, low productivity and final product quality problems are still common. In this context, project management is a crucial tool for improving construction operations and for the overall success of projects. The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion on success evaluation factors in a field where little has been written — the construction industry. Through a survey of 40 medium and large Portuguese companies several factors were identified which are currently considered in the evaluation of project success, as found in the literature review. The results show that the traditional factors, often referred to as the “Atkinson elements triangle” (cost, time and quality), are still the most relevant for evaluating the success of a project, but others, such as customer involvement and acceptance, have gained importance in recent years.