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Team integration is a concept that has been widely fostered in alliances as a way of improving collaborative relationships between diverse organisations. However, deeper insights into the practice of high levels of team integration remain elusive. The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of team integration through the “lived experience” of practitioners in an alliance.

This study employed a qualitative research methodology. Using a phenomenological examination, via the lived experiences of 24 alliance practitioners, the practice of alliance team integration has been investigated based on the key indicators that foster alliance team integration: team leadership, trust and respect, single team focus on project objectives and key results areas, collective understanding, commitment from project alliance board, single and co-located alliance team, and free flow communication.

The findings highlight that alliancing gives the project teams’ flexibility to change and adapt, to advance the collaborative environment and that successful integration of multi-disciplinary project teams requires commitment to the identified indicators. These findings have led to the development of a framework of leadership for successful alliance integrated practices. It is proposed that to influence the leadership for the purpose of achieving successful integration practice, a team-centric approach is required which includes four elements: task and relationship-oriented behaviours; collaborative learning environments; cultivating cross-boundary networks; and collaborative governance.

As team integration is the central tenet of alliance projects, greater understanding regarding the leadership of integration practice is of value in leveraging the benefits of outstanding performance. Also, the results of the study are expected to be informative and provide insight for alliance teams to help them proactively recognise how the context of integrated teams is influenced by specific indicators, impacting on the extent of integration practice.

This study contributes to the current body of knowledge concerning the insights from the “lived experience” of alliance teams towards achieving a greater understanding of what contributes to the leadership of successful integration practices.

Designers have a key role to play in the Prevention through Design (PtD) practices in construction projects. Nonetheless, previous studies indicated that the issue of competencies to perform and sustain such practices over time is of a significant concern. This study aims to explore the key attributes of designers' competencies for PtD practices in construction.

By using the Scopus database, a total of 86 papers related to PtD in construction published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed and analysed using the well-established systematic literature review (SLR) methodology.

The review indicates that in order to be competent in PtD implementation, designers need to be equipped with tacit and explicit knowledge, technical and soft skills and experience related to PtD. Furthermore, the review identifies attributes of these competencies. Additionally, a framework that links key PtD elements/principles with the PtD competencies is presented.

The findings would enable contribution to the industry by providing the necessary references for design organisations to improve their designers' PtD competencies and hence, be able to meet their responsibility under relevant occupational safety and health (OSH) legislative framework.

This study extends the PtD literature in the construction context by providing deeper insights into the conceptualisation of relationship between competent designers and PtD elements. The novelty also lies in the consolidation of PtD competency attributes for designers in construction that could act as a reference for any future developments related to PtD competency assessment for designers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore innovation in alliance contracting in the New Zealand construction industry in terms of features (i.e. development process, risk/reward framework and leadership structure) that could influence successful project outcomes.

This study employed a qualitative research methodology. Three alliancing projects have been identified as the cases. By using interviews with the project’s owner and non-owner participants and related project documentation, the relevant features in the three examined cases were identified and compared.

The findings revealed differences in the reasoning why a particular alliance approach was implemented, how the alliance selection process was conducted and what kind of leadership structure was adopted. Interestingly, a number of unique and innovative practices to alliancing were also highlighted, notably the innovative agreements, innovative governance structure and innovative functional teams that influence the synergistically creative solutions to suit the clients’ needs.

The innovative practices identified in this study have brought the alliancing concept to a new level of practice in the industry. The findings provide a basis and a platform for discussion, both nationally and internationally, to gain greater understanding in managing different alliance contracting towards breakthrough outcomes.

This study extends the alliancing procurement literature, in particular, but also provides significant insights into innovative advancements to the collaborative procurement approaches.

The purpose of this study is to develop a dual-functional university-enabled social innovation process model on the subject of low-cost houses that addresses the distinct elements of social obligation and university teaching–learning.

This study has predominantly adopted a longitudinal single case study approach, where data have been collected through interviews, survey, participant observation, direct observation and document review. The case study details on the social innovation processes, which was conducted by Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

This study has demonstrated the social innovation processes toward addressing the issue of insufficient low-cost houses, concurrently benefitting the teaching–learning dimension. Three sub-innovations have been highlighted in the developed social innovation process model, which are collaboration process, teaching–learning and design-construct innovation.

Because the study has been based on a single prototype project, further investigation is necessary to confirm the applicability of the full-fledged model. The established social innovation process model is also suggested to be tested in other social fields.

The established social innovation process model has created a new perspective that enables universities to contribute in providing shelter for low-income families, simultaneously enhancing the teaching–learning dimension through experiential learning.

The dual-functional social innovation process model provides a synergistic relationship between the university and the society. Ultimately, the model could address social issues pertaining to low-income families with the built of low-cost houses, concurrently preparing graduates who are highly marketable, which could reduce the rate of graduate unemployment in the country.

The development of the social innovation process model for low-cost houses through university-enabled initiative is a novel establishment, particularly for developing nations, as limited studies have been conducted in this regard. The significant insights into how university could play a role in addressing major social issues, along with their core focus (teaching–learning and research development), is a breakthrough for further diffusions of social innovation by universities.

Megaprojects are typically very expensive public-centred projects that leave little space for any mismanagement or deficient planning, which could affect the project adversely. The Last Planner™ System (LPS) is a lean construction planning and control tool that functions to reduce waste and increase performance. Given the benefits, the application of the LPS in megaprojects is still scarce, especially in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to compare the current production planning, monitoring and review practices in a megaproject with the LPS in order to explore the possibilities of adapting the LPS to the current practices.

This longitudinal case-based study has first explored the current practices implemented in an infrastructure megaproject, which is an urban rapid transit (URT) project, which was then compared to the standard LPS practices. The case study has adopted several research methods such as observation, interview and document review.

Findings from the study highlight that the current production planning, monitoring and review practices in the URT project mostly differs from the standard LPS practices with only slight similarities found in the major planning phases. The comparative study, which based on five reference points through master, phase, look-ahead, weekly work plan and measure, and learning has resulted in several key elements, representative of the different planning phases, such as collaborative programming, reverse planning, reliability, dependability and continuous learning.

This study provides an alternative perspective to rail planners, as well as other types of project planners in considering the use of the LPS to enhance the quality of planning, monitoring and review in projects. The framework that highlights the core values and key elements for the related planning phases enables project teams with no lean background to partially adapt their current practices to the LPS with minimal disruption.

This study first contributes to the body of knowledge, where limited study was found comparing and contrasting current production planning practices against the LPS, particularly in rail-based megaproject. The results from the comparison are the key elements representing each of the planning phases that was rooted back to the core values (teamwork, involvement and collaboration, communication and transparency, and continuous improvement) necessary to enhance the current practices.

This study aims to propose a novel approach to developing an interactive and immersive virtual environment for design communication in the furniture, fixture and equipment (FFE) sector. The study further investigates its effectiveness in enhancing the design communication and coordination between the stakeholder.

Quasi-experimental research was adopted involving 12 FFE professionals, designers and end-users in single-group pre-test-post-test design. The tests were performed primarily to ascertain the impact of the application of interactive virtual reality on delivering furniture design selection and coordination tasks. Further interviews were used to elicit participants' views on the functionality and usefulness of the proposed approach.

The findings indicate that an interactive immersive virtual FFE environment: enhances the productivity of the design team through a collaborative virtual workspace offering a synchronised networked design testing and review platform; reduces the time required for the stakeholders to comprehend the design options and test those; enhances the design communication and quality of the design and encourages the collaborative culture in the industry; improves the design satisfaction of the stakeholders; and finally, requires significantly less time for design decision-making when compared to traditional methods.

Future studies should incorporate space planning concepts and explore non-experimental methodologies in a real-life FFE project setup.

The proposed approach provides opportunities for enhanced interpretation of design intent in FFE as well as efficiency in design selection and coordination tasks when compared with conventional two-dimensional methods of communication.

This study proposes a step change in the way furniture design is communicated and coordinated through an immersive virtual experience. Previous studies have not addressed the issue of impact on design coordination instead focussed on marketing and sales.

Despite the wave of enthusiasm for building information modelling (BIM) as a platform for information sharing, issues from the context of information-sharing behaviours still exist. The purpose of this paper is to explore the behavioural factors for successful information sharing in BIM projects in Malaysia.

Based on a literature review, a questionnaire was designed containing seven identified behavioural factors and their sub-elements. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 42 experienced BIM practitioners. In addition to that qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine construction practitioners in the Malaysian construction industry. Initially, a descriptive statistical analysis was adopted, followed by multivariate analysis that was employed to examine the possible effect of demographic attributes (i.e. nature of organisation and work experience in BIM) on the behavioural factors.

The analytical results indicated that communication, accountability and trust were the top three behavioural factors influencing successful information sharing. Additionally, the majority of the behavioural factors on information sharing were found to be not significantly dependent on both, the nature of organisations and the level of BIM experiences. Overall, the success of information sharing in the digital environment (i.e. BIM) depends on organisational behaviour supported by the collaborative constructs.

Due to the fact that BIM implementation in Malaysia is still in its infancy, this study was limited to local context with small-scale BIM practitioners. Therefore, their views may not represent all BIM-related stakeholders in the industry.

The success of information sharing in BIM projects is a result of a combination of various factors, and this study provides construction practitioners with information on the behavioural factors, which could assist them in creating collective and collaborative information sharing in a digital environment.

Despite the fact that this study is country specific, the paper presents a new perspective on the behavioural context of information sharing in BIM projects. The findings further extend the current BIM literature by providing an insight into what it takes for project teams to reinforce their information sharing in the Malaysian digital environment through improvements in behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a doctoral thesis that developed an Alliance Team Integration Performance Index (ATIPI), an assessment tool for measuring team integration performance in alliance projects. It provides a summary of the thesis findings, shares the candidate’s doctoral journey and discusses both the thesis “with publication” format and the doctoral programme at the University of Auckland.

This study employed a qualitative and quantitative research methodology (mixed methods research). Research methods applied as reported in this thesis include the Delphi questionnaire survey, interviews and empirical questionnaire surveys with the alliance experts involved in road infrastructure projects.

Results from the thesis indicate that the ATIPI is characterized by three elements: first, the most significant Key Indicators (KIs), signifying their dominant influence; second, the suitable quantitative measures for each of the KIs, to promote objective assessment over time; and third, the performance-level boundaries for each KI, to reduce the subjectivity of assessment and promote consistency. The assessment tool was found to be both practical and applicable based on a validation interview and subsequent testing with alliance experts on real life alliance infrastructure projects.

As team integration is the central tenet of alliance projects, the ATIPI is an ideal assessment tool to facilitate the measurement of team integration performance consistently and objectively over the life cycle of alliance projects. Also, the ATIPI is expected to make a fundamental and positive difference towards improving the integration practice of alliance teams.

This study extends the team integration literature by providing significant insights into the practical evaluation of team integration performance, specifically in alliance projects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of the Alliance Team Integration Performance Index (ATIPI) model as an assessment tool to measure the performance of team integration in alliance road infrastructure projects in New Zealand.

This study takes a case study approach, using a qualitative research method. Three road infrastructure projects under project alliance from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) were selected as the cases. Data were collected through the interviews with a representative from the alliance management team from each case. Project records and documentation were also used to assist and support the actual data from the interviews.

The findings indicated that the ATIPI is performing as expected and found to be both practical and applicable to measure the team integration performance in light of real life case studies of alliance road infrastructure projects. Across the three case studies, there is evidence that high levels of integrated performance is consistently fostered by the project teams over the lifecycle of projects. In addition, based on the cross-case analysis from the application of the ATIPI on three cases, further work could enhance the probability of the utilization of the tool to manage different project alliance teams consistently and objectively.

The study was limited to three alliance road infrastructure projects in New Zealand. Further research into different alliance projects is required to establish a comprehensive database of alliance team integration performance, so that the model could be more beneficial for owner and non-owner participants, for benchmarking purposes.

As team integration practice can directly result in high performing teams in alliance projects, the ATIPI is an ideal model to facilitate the continuous evaluation of team integration performance consistently and objectively over the lifecycle of the projects.

This study extends the team integration literature in construction research by providing significant insights into the empirical evaluation of alliance team integration performance, as well as providing added value for the enhancement of any future development of performance evaluation models in construction research.

The purpose of this paper is to validate a list of key indicators (KIs) of team integration identified from construction management literature, identify the most significant KIs and provide suggestions on how to influence team integration, based on the opinion of an established construction peer group in New Zealand.

A literature review was conducted to identify and consolidate a set of KIs of team integration. Subsequently, a set of questions was designed to gain insight and opinion in terms of the significance and ranking of the identified indicators, as well as suggestions on how to influence the integration practice.

Analysis of the survey results showed that all relevant indicators have a strong influence towards determining the success of team integration in construction projects. The top-ranked indicators that contribute towards successful team integration are all relationship orientated as follows; single team focus on goals and objectives, trust and respect, commitment from top management, free flow communication and no blame culture. A framework for influencing these indicators of team integration is proposed which includes four elements: first, team formation; second, contractual model; third, teamwork principle; and fourth, operational monitoring.

The findings are limited to practitioners’ perceptions who are registered with an established construction peer group in New Zealand.

The results of the study are expected to provide insight for construction practitioners to help them embrace team integration practice and, hence, provide both the opportunity and a platform to enhance and measure their team performance.

The paper recognises that while the process of integration is a result of a combination of many indicators, it further extends the team integration literature by providing insights into what are the dominant relationship indicators of team integration, and how to influence these indicators based on a proposed framework.