Private Construction Research Articles

Evaluation of the maturity level and critical success factors in the implementation of knowledge management in the national private construction service company in Indonesia

At present, knowledge management (KM) is considered an appropriate competitive tool for success in a knowledge-based economy, many organizations have deployed and implemented KM to improve performance. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidelines and picture for organizations to evaluate the level of KM maturity of national private construction service companies in Indonesia and ways to improve them so that organizational performance improves. The first step in achieving the KM goal is the recognition of the current status of the KM capability itself in the company gained through the KM maturity model. Next, how to improve it so that the company’s performance is better by reviewing alignment with identifying critical success factors (CSF). Seven organizational or functional criteria are used as key elements towards an effective KM approach, namely policies/strategies, HR planning and processes, training and improvement of human performance, procedure methods and documentation processes, technical solutions (IT), approaches to capture/use tacid knowledge, and KM culture. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the level of KM maturity was in the second level, namely the development stage. Policies/strategies are the main categories to be improved.

Efficient backward private searchable encryption

Dynamic Searchable Symmetric Encryption ( DSSE), apart from providing support for search operation, allows a client to perform update operations on outsourced database efficiently. Two security properties, viz., forward privacy and backward privacy are desirable from a DSSE scheme. The former captures that the newly updated entries cannot be related to previous search queries and the latter ensures that search queries should not leak matching entries after they have been deleted. These security properties are formalized in terms of the information leakage that can be incurred by the respective constructions. Existing backward private constructions either have a non-optimal communication overhead or they make use of heavy cryptographic primitives. Our main contribution consists of two efficient backward private schemes I BP and I WBP that aim to achieve practical efficiency by using light weight symmetric cryptographic components only. In the process, we also revisit the existing definitions of information leakage for backward privacy Bost et al. (In ACM CCS (2017) 1465-1482 ACM Press) and propose a relaxed formulation. I BP is the first construction to achieve backward privacy in the general setting with optimal communication complexity. Our second construction, I WBP , is the first single round-trip scheme achieving backward privacy in a restricted setting with optimal communication complexity using light weight symmetric cryptographic primitives. The prototype implementations of our schemes depict the practicability of the proposed constructions and indicate that the cost of achieving backward privacy over forward privacy is substantially small. The performance results also show that the proposed constructions outperform the currently most efficient scheme achieving backward privacy. © 2020 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Adopting BIM in the Jordanian Private Construction Industry Case Study

Adopting BIM in the Jordanian Private Construction Industry Case Study

Reducing CRR in fast-track projects through BIM

Rework is one of the most commonly encountered issues that face construction projects, leading to potential loss of money and delays. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential role of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in reducing Client-Related Rework (CRR) when set within the context of fast-track construction projects in Egypt. In order to study this issue survey data was collected from 51 construction professionals within the Egyptian private construction sector with experience in fast-track projects through a self-administered questionnaire composed of fourteen closed and open-ended subgroup of questions, whose aim is to gain an understanding of the main sources of CRR in the industry. The survey results revealed that the majority of the respondents (92.1%) had experienced CRR in construction projects, resulting in an average project cost increase of 22% and an average delay of 23%, as well as formulating the basis for a novel Severity Index (SI), which was devised in order to rank CRR causes, with its finding revealing "Clients' financial problems", "Impediment in prompting the decision making of the client" and "Replacement of materials by the client", as the biggest contributors to CRR. The survey also highlights visualization as a potential solution to CRR, with eight case studies from literature as well as one from the Egyptian market being used to validate the use of BIM in the reduction of CRR. Findings illustrated that the use of BIM in the Egypt is similar to findings in literature, with BIM resulting in rework cost and schedule reduction of 49 and 57 percent respectively.

Developing corporate communications: insights from the Italian scenario

PurposeBased on the managerial perceptions from large firms, this paper aims to explore the emergence, growth and importance of corporate communications and how it is evolving and creating competitive advantage for Italian firms.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach is deployed, comprising in-depth interviews with senior managers from Italian corporations from a broad spectrum of industries, including: energy, telecommunications, automotive, transport, retail chain, appliances, technology and engineering, private shipping, government-owned holdings, marketing consultancy and construction.FindingsThe paper offers insight into corporate communications (corpcoms) practices in the sampled companies. The paper shows that corpcoms involves a complex range of activities leading to performance – managed and implemented under CEO direction.Practical implicationsCorpcoms is perceived as a strategic concept with effective application relative to managing corporate image and reputation. The findings offer insights for communication professionals who deal with corpcoms, branding and marketing communications.Originality/valueCorpcoms can be viewed via the lens of social actors’ perspectives, i.e. via practitioners – including brand managers and senior executives, as they possess practical knowledge of business practice in specific contextual business settings and have the managerial ability and remit to design, implement and evaluate integrated corpcoms.

Rwanda

Growth continues to outpace expectations. 2019 H1 growth was 10.3 percent y/y, fueled by private and public construction. Inflation rose at a slightly slower pace than anticipated in the first half of 2019, and 12-month average inflation was below the MPCC band from June-August this year. Lower-than-anticipated donor disbursements and higher execution of externally-financed deficit spending resulted in a higher-than-expected FY18/19 fiscal deficit, financed by a higher float and spending adjustment. Strong uptake of longer-term sovereign bond and an increased float led to domestic liquidity pressures in July-September, prompting greater activity on the interbank market and liquidity injections by the central bank. The trade deficit increased slightly more than expected in the first three quarters of 2019, due to adverse terms of trade and strong capital imports. This was largely offset by an improvement in services, largely reflecting strong performance of RwandAir. The RWF had depreciated by 4.7 percent at end-October y/y, and international reserves remain adequate.

Опыт государственно-частного партнерства в сфере развития современного деревянного жилищного строительства в Финляндии

This paper studies the experience and algorithm of public-private partnership in the development of modern wooden housing in Finland. Are view of the state of modern wooden architecture in the general context of architectural activity in Finland was carried out by analysing governmental programmes aimed at developing wooden housing and environmentally sustainable constructionpractices,in particular the "State architectural policy of Finland" adopted in 1998. The materials of a seminar on constructing modern wooden housing held in Irkutsk by Finnish specialists are presented. The ex-perience of Finnish colleagues was considered in terms of its expediency for the construction industry of the Angara region. It is established that the organizational and economic effectiveness of projects in the sphere of wooden housing construction and environmentally sustainable construction processes should be based on a close and comprehensive cooperation of state construction organizations with private construction companies and public organizations. Specific forms of public-private partnership in the field of wooden housing construction are described, along with the roles and positions of all the par-ticipants. Special attention was paid to the Finnish experience of holding housing fairs, which are aimed at promoting wooden housing construction in different cities of Finland. The Finnish experience in the development of wooden housing construction is currently one of the best in the world, and its applica-tion in the construction industry of the Angara region is expedient.

The Effect of Apartment Housing Characteristics on the Days On Market(DOM)

Pre-sale performance is a micro indicator of the supply and demand of housing market. Nevertheless, research on pre-sale outcome is insufficient due to data limitations. This study analyzes the characteristics of housing that affect the days on market(hereafter DOM), and also considers the effects of apartments characteristics on the DOM by mediation sale price. This study tries to acquire and analyze pre-sale data that are difficult to obtain due to the characteristics of private construction companies. As a result, the mediation effect of pre-sale price was confirmed as partial mediation effect, and the increase of pre-sale price was shown to increase the DOM in the market as a whole. According to the analysis results, it is found that providing good conditions of view, sunshine and ventilation such as small area, south facing, high floor, and direct airflow and lowering the sale price is effective to improve the sale performance.

Analysis of the main trends, problems and prospects of the building materials industry of the Republic of Bashkortostan

The article actualizes the importance of the development of the construction materials industry in the Russian Federation from the point of view of the need to level the existing imbalances in the socio-economic development of the regions. The main trends, problems and prospects of development of the construction materials industry are analyzed on the materials of the Republic of Bashkortostan – one of the leading subjects of the Russian Federation. In the 1990–2000-ies of economic reform in the construction complex of the country were destroyed centralized management structures, deformed industry and spatial structure of the complex, violated the relationship between suppliers and consumers of building materials and structures, which led to the bankruptcy of most of the largest construction trusts, reducing the volume and pace of construction and installation work. In the Republic of Bashkortostan, the share of private construction companies has increased with a decrease in the share of state-owned enterprises and enterprises of mixed ownership. Due to the crisis situation of a number of Republican manufacturers of building materials, the volume of unfinished construction is growing, the needs of the region in construction materials and structures are not covered sufficiently. The results of the analysis of development of construction complex of the region and substantiates the need for structural and technological modernization of the industry of construction materials based on the structural transformation of the economy of the region, introduction of the latest scientific and technical achievements, advanced machinery and technological processes, effective structural changes and institutional reforms. Taking into account the advanced foreign and domestic experience (Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Sverdlovsk, Voronezh, Kaluga, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Samara, Saratov regions and the Republic of Tatarstan), the priority directions and mechanisms of structural modernization of the construction materials industry of the Republic of Bashkortostan through the use of the cluster approach are scientifically justified.

Smart Cities, Dumb Infrastructure: Policy-Induced Competition in Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Systems

The coinciding development of 5G wireless technology, autonomous vehicles, and smart city applications is creating commercial demand for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) systems. In theory, roadside V2I systems and sensors could provide real-time services, such as supplementary mapping information to autonomous vehicles, traffic detection, and congestion pricing. Although federal funding of V2I systems has ramped up in recent years, federal regulators have largely retreated from their top-down design of V2I services and devices. These trends — undirected government funding and private construction of V2I applications and devices — leave state and local transportation officials with powerful discretion over the construction and design of V2I systems. We describe and anticipate the tradeoffs that lawmakers, regulators, and state authorities will face as they budget for and fund V2I roadside networks. We find that public-private partnerships likely will have greater prominence in the construction of roadside V2I networks. Finally, we apply the “policy-induced competition model” to inform when public intervention into V2I funding and design is effective. We propose regulator adoption of an open access model for long-lasting roadside assets. This “dumb infrastructure” model promotes competition and innovation in V2I while minimizing use of regulator resources and public funding of networks.

The 2014 Ngolog Mitmit: A Case Study Examining Public and Private Heritage in Yap State, FSM

This article provides an ethnographic case study of heritage processes in action that were observed and recorded during fieldwork in 2013 and 2014 on the Main Islands of Yap State—the westernmost state of the Federated States of Micronesia. A description will be provided of a historic traditional gathering known as a mitmit which from the day it was decided upon activated the transmission of cultural heritage knowledge and practices throughout Yap’s Main Islands. By examining the mitmit, the event’s significance for Yapese stakeholders, and how the U.S. National Park Service was indirectly involved, several findings emerge. It is found that the planning, organization and performance of the mitmit assisted in preserving elements of Yapese cultural heritage that local stakeholders identified as most valuable and in need of safeguarding. The case study also supports the continuing utility of Chambers’ (2006) public and private heritage constructs, especially when evaluating heritage practices within indigenous contexts where the preservation of intangible cultural heritage is often a more critical concern. The analysis suggests that more attention should be devoted to identifying how public heritage interventions can activate private heritage practices, thereby mitigating the hegemonic effects of Smith’s (2004) authorized heritage discourse (AHD).

Coping with the Information Age: Development of a Data Flow Diagram-Based Knowledge Management System for Mitigating Delays for Construction

The construction industry adopts itself to the paradigm shift of today’s technology as evident in the numerous researches being conducted to create a more sustainable process and risk-resilient systems in management of projects. In this study, the documentation system of private construction companies in the Philippines served as the primary focus with an intention to scrutinize and improve the data management system of these construction projects. Data was gathered from three(3) different companies (A, AA, and AAA) involving six of their ongoing projects. After the conduct of two(2) Likert Scale surveys, contractor-based factors are the most common delay issues in projects namely financial difficulties and late deliveries with a mean of 4.32 and 4.26 respectively; while, communication and proper data management were deemed by the respondents as most effective with a mean of 4.66 and 4.51 respectively. The analysis of variance from the three companies does not show much difference as it was able to meet the 95% confidence level implying that the hypothesis is valid in all three sets and same as the analysis of variance among the three construction entities—contractor, client, and consultant. The DFD-Simulation Method showed a significant 2-3 days of schedule improvement valued from Php 10,000.00 – Php 125,000.00. Therefore, construction data management needs to apply DFD and other emerging technologies such as BIM to improve construction delay mitigation.

The Registry of Accredited Companies in the Construction Sector in Spain: An Administrative Instrument for Risk-Prevention Control.

The degree of compliance with the Registro de Empresas Acreditadas (REA) (Registry of Accredited Companies) and its implementation by the Public Administrations in Spain is compared with its implementation among private construction sector firms. The Registry of Accredited Companies is a tool for risk-prevention control that is defined by Law 32/2006 in Regulation of Subcontracting in the Construction Sector in Spain. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of the data obtained from public bodies registered with the REA, the study is limited to Ayuntamientos y Diputaciones Provinciales (Municipal Town and City Councils and Provincial Councils of the Provincial Government). To do so, the registration records with the REA of both public administrations are analyzed within the 50 Provinces and the two Autonomous Cities that together constitute the 17 Autonomous Communities of the national territory of Spain. In parallel, a comparative study is performed of the registration records of private construction sector firms registered with the REA. Public digital data-management tools are used for the investigation, together with publicly available information known as the Relación de Puestos de Trabajo (RPT) (List of Employment Positions) of the corresponding public entities under analysis, with the objective of testing the information and validating its degree of reliability. Likewise, a survey is administered to gather data on the registration of private construction center firms, in addition to the use of the qualitative Focus Groups technique, so as to assure the reliability the survey data. The results revealed unequal treatment by the Labor Authority with regard to the imposition of similar administrative obligations. A clearly negative discrimination was noted with regard to private construction sector firms, in comparison with the permissive attitude and light administrative burden of the Public Administrations.

The Memory of Opulence and the Freedom of a Pauper: The Constructionmaterial Discourse in the Polish Construction Industry in the Period of the Thaw

The issue of construction materials was one of the essential topics that determined the architectural discourse of the Thaw era. Reminiscences of designers regarding the pre-war wealth of construction materials on offer, as contrasted with current scarcity, revealed the critical and ideologically subversive potential of this topic. This was because such statements not only questioned the “excellence of the way today’s construction site is organised”, eloquently promoted by the Stalinist propaganda, but also highlighted the actual meaninglessness of slogans regarding technological progress and the introduction of new materials into construction practice, which had been tooted since the latter half of 1953. In reality, the central point was cost-cutting, as shown by the parallel campaign undertaken by the authorities, advocating the use of “locally obtainable and waste materials”, i.e. materials that could be acquired without putting a burden on the inefficient state industry. At the same time, however, this campaign, initiated at the threshold of the Thaw, contained some interesting ideological themes, since in return for the dearth of materials, it offered the citizens a legal prospect of conducting – individually or cooperatively, but in each case independently from governmental control – activities aimed at assuaging their housing needs; this constituted a departure from the centralised model of housing construction as promoted in the Stalinist period. Also, small-size houses made of reed boards, which began to be manufactured at that time, turned the general attention to the applicability of lightweight prefabrication – significantly different from large-size concrete block prefabrication promoted at the time following the Soviet models – in contemporary housing construction. A growing interest in, or even fascination with, individual house-building activity of the Polish population soon became evident in the milieus of construction experts and engineers. These feelings found their expression ca. 1958 in, on the one hand, numerous handbooks promoting the notion of a do-it-yourself house, and on the other, in far-reaching analyses of the “wild”, i.e. unauthorised, housing construction in Warsaw, treated as socially detrimental activity, but also as a testimony to the citizens’ spontaneity and creativity. However, in a long-term perspective, it was hard to believe that “local and waste materials” would reduce the chasm between the still unmet needs of the population and the construction policy of the state. In the period of Gomułka’s government, the cost-cutting measures continued to be implemented, but the aspirations and needs of the citizens who undertook to build their own houses, as well as the ambitions of architects, were growing. This is well-documented by the 1964 contest for cost-effective single-family houses, where industrially produced construction materials predominated. Private construction was thus entering a grey zone, not covered by any economic concepts developed by the state; the time of fashioning houses out of clay was over and the époque of cement-stealing had begun.

Green and sustainable practices in the construction industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to differentiate between sustainable and green construction and significantly contribute to empirical investigations related to the impact of green construction factors on sustainable performance and to test the theory of planned behavior in the construction context and empirically assess green construction factors and the performance model. The model incorporates green construction factors that link construction activities with suppliers and customers to support environmental sustainability.Design/methodology/approachData collected from 120 construction industry respondents were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, which identified seven green construction factors. Two conformity factor analysis models were created to test the relationship fitness of the components and measure the impact of green construction factors on the sustainable performance of the construction.FindingsThe results provide substantial evidence that shows that the adoption of green construction factors by construction firms leads to improved sustainable performance. The overall perspective of respondents within the construction industry, according to the questionnaire survey, shows that the benefits, such as an improved corporate image and sustainable competitive advantage, increase compliance with customers’ expectations within the construction industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study covered private construction companies and measured the construction industry professional’s feedback without including the clients.Practical implicationsThe results of this study will support the future success of ecological sustainability and green construction initiatives, mainly on enforcement and incentives; moreover, the results of this study will ensure that regulations will cover green practices for all types of projects and will be formally monitored for compliance.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper stems from drawing boundaries between green and sustainable construction and exploring the impact of green management on the sustainable performance of the construction industry. Most of the related previous works have used the concepts of green and sustainability interchangeably, and there is a lack of studies in this regard, particularly in the construction industry.

The Role of the Public Partner in Innovation in Transport Infrastructure PPPs: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Nine Dutch DBFM Projects

By transferring risks and responsibilities to the private sector, governments hope that public–private partnerships (PPPs) bring about innovations in transport infrastructure development. Taking the position that a PPP is not equal to outsourcing, this article explores the role of the public partner in innovation in infrastructure PPPs. To this purpose, nine Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) projects in Dutch transport infrastructure development were systematically analyzed with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The results show that the presence of innovation is associated with multiple, nonexclusive combinations of three conditions: the procurement result of the partnership contract, the composition of the private construction consortium, and the project management by the public partner (i.e., stakeholder management, technical management, and contract management). In particular, the public partner’s choice to enter into a PPP with a construction consortium consisting of a small number of firms is associated with innovation.

Open Innovation of New Emerging Small Economies Based on University-Construction Industry Cooperation

This research is to analyse the existing cooperation between universities and the construction industry and to investigate what is the most effective model for long-term cooperation between an academic university and the private construction sector. The current article describes the human resources management tools to be used by employers to create interrelations between the paid salaries and productivity, thus providing both individual and corporate results. The suggested different tools contribute to keeping employees satisfied and motivated, simultaneously properly balancing productivity and individual earnings. The researchers conclude that it is necessary to create a new model for personnel selection and a new approach to stimulate motivation and maintenance within the construction industry. In order to respond to the needs of the sector for professionals and the required increase of the qualifications of the mentioned specialists, it is necessary that the country improves the level of education of the future professionals for the construction industry and changes the system of testing their professional qualifications, which means cooperation between the educational institutions and the industry. The suggested cooperation model by authors may provide a general guideline for further detailed researches and its implementation may help similar-sized economies to make possible national adjustments. The implementation of this model in bigger and/or developed economies should be justified by separate additional research.

From Penal to "Civil": A Legacy of Private Prison Policy in a Landscape of Migrant Detention

Texas has more migrant detention centers and migrant prisons than any other state in the Union. This essay focuses on the construction and design of migrant detention facilities in Texas since the 1960s in relation to immigration policy and private prison practices. Using archival and ethnographic methods that include historical newspaper articles, ICE contracts and documents, satellite imagery, field observations and interviews, this genealogy of the construction of detention facilities reveals the government’s abdication of design responsibilities, as private prison corporations and construction companies assume authority and responsibility for making critical design decisions that affect migrants’ daily lives. I argue that the construction and design of facilities in Texas has formalized and institutionalized the “penal turn” and “criminalization of migration” reflected in immigration policy into an intractable material reality with long-term consequences. Not only has the evolving design of detention facilities contributed to today’s increasingly punitive experience of detention, but also the building of detention facilities and their related contracts shapes both a US civic “spatial imagination” and immigration policy itself.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS IN GEOGRAPHICALLY DEFINED MARKETS USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE SALE OF CONSTRUCTION FINANCING IN RURAL AREAS

Private mortgage lending business is an important business segment for retail banks. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the comparatively low risk. On the one hand, because many years of experience in this segment enable optimal risk management. On the other hand, the financed properties also provide optimum security. Due to the small size of this business segment, private construction financing was unattractive for major banks for a long time. On the other hand, this division was a core business for regional banks and savings banks. However, as a result of the banking crisis in 2007 and 2008 and the ECB’s ongoing low-interest policy, the private mortgage lending sector is now attractive to all market participants. This is reflected in fiercer competition. The importance of customer communication has therefore also increased in the advertising for new business. Since financial and personnel resources are limited, corporate communications are faced with the challenge of addressing potential customers as efficiently as possible. Communication science has already developed a number of concepts for optimal, integrated communication. These are based on average consumers. Against the background of possible regional deviations in media usage and consumer behaviour, this work explains that banks and savings banks with a regionally defined business area should set different priorities within the communications mix than suprare­gional providers. To this end, a field study was conducted in rural areas of the Nuremberg metro­politan region and analysed using a chi-square test. The study revealed the continuing importance of branches and personal advice, despite increasing digitalisation. At the same time, the necessity of closely networking stationary sales and online offers in rural areas becomes clear.

The Mithraeum at Kempraten (CH) – Preliminary Results from a New Discovery in 2015/16

Summary During rescue excavations carried out near the vicus at Kempraten (municipality of Rapperswil-Jona, St. Gallen, Switzerland) in advance of a private construction project, a Mithraeum measuring approximately 8 by 10 m was unexpectedly discovered in the summer of 2015 and subsequently excavated and investigated in detail. This paper presents the preliminary results of the excavation, which was completed less than a year ago, and pays particular attention to the interdisciplinary approach used in the excavation. These included intense sampling of the features for the purposes of micromorphology and archaeobiology. Three construction phases with intermittent conflagrations were identified. The question as to whether there was an ante-chamber remains unanswered. The external areas are also quite difficult to interpret, at least for the time being. The rich assemblage of finds, which included numerous coins, pottery, animal bones and a range of religious artefacts (e.g. altars and a half relief), will only be dealt with in a cursory manner here. According to the range of coins, the Mithraeum undoubtedly dated from the late 3rd to the late 4th or early 5th centuries. The site will be analysed by an interdisciplinary team and preliminary work is already underway.