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In professional services, innovation occurs in the delivery. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for classifying innovation in professional services by taking into account the strength of the relationship with the client in addition to the incremental‐radical nature of innovation.

Based on the framework provided, there are operational, experimental, tactical, and high‐potential professional services, the characteristics of which are illustrated both conceptually and with a case example.

Professional service goes through different stages during its lifespan. A high‐potential service is a stage where the nature of the innovation is radical and the relationship with the client is strong. It is suggested that high‐potential services create a future competitive advantage not only for the service provider, but also for the client.

A qualitative network approach with a focal actor perspective, in which the networks are illustrated from the supplier's point of view, is used. The characteristics of a high‐potential service are connected to the development stage of the service.

Classification of professional services is provided, and the importance of high‐potential services is highlighted. Advice for managers is given for designing suitable management initiatives in professional services in all their stages: idea, development, and commercialization.

The approach introduced in this paper addresses three gaps in the existing research: it helps to characterize and theorize the concept of innovation in professional services; it draws attention to the important role of the client in professional services, and it expands the management of innovation in professional services to include network relationships.

Building information modelling (BIM) adoption is vital to the productivity and competitive nature of the construction sector. However, BIM adoptions have not been generally embraced by many architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms, particularly in developing countries. Moreover, studies that investigate the important drivers to BIM adoptions among construction professionals through quantitative approach are limited. The purpose of this study is to address the aforementioned gap.

This study involves a literature review, a pilot study and a questionnaire survey. The primary data were carried out using structured questionnaires distributed to four different BIM adopter AEC firms. These comprised architectural firms, facility management firms, quantity surveying firms and structural engineering firms in Lagos, Nigeria. Data obtained were analysed using mean score, standard deviation, Kruskal–Wallis test and factor analysis.

The study identified 23 drivers to BIM adoption, and the relative importance of the identified drivers was gauged from each selected BIM adopter AEC firm category. The result of the Kruskal–Wallis test showed that there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the four selected AEC firms in the mean ranking of the identified 23 drivers to BIM adoption. The findings from factor analysis categorized the identified drivers into two major factors to include cost and time savings, improved communication, and BIM awareness and government supports.

The study empirically identifies important drivers to BIM adoption that will be useful for construction stakeholders to formulate strategies to adopt the full implementation of BIM in the AEC firms of Nigeria and other developing countries. Also, this study is important as it identifies, analyses and compares the drivers to BIM adoptions from four different AEC firms, thereby providing robust and more reliable findings.

The study findings will provide information to policymakers and construction stakeholders to make policy recommendations that are capable of positively influencing the widespread adoption of BIM in AEC firms in particular and the construction industry at large. This study is important because the studies that comparatively and empirically analyzed BIM drivers in AEC firms are rare, particularly in developing countries. Hence, this study could be used to benchmark future studies in developing countries.

The construction industry’s business model is mainly based on the interaction among the architecture office, the engineering office and the construction company. The performance and practices of architects’ offices, unlike those of the other actors, are difficult to characterize and there have been few studies on these issues. To better understand architects’ performance, the purpose of this paper is to develop a benchmarking tool based on real practices identified by managers of Chilean architecture offices.

The research method includes a complete literature review, followed by a study of a sample of nine Chilean architecture offices, with whom a series of four workshops was developed, to establish both performance indicators and relevant management practices. Finally, these metrics were applied in an architectural office as a pilot case.

Four management dimensions were defined: client management, external coordination, internal organization and human resources. Key performance indicators were divided into process, financial and quality indicators. The workshops carried out with the architectural offices demonstrated the relevance of benchmarking tools such as the one developed, which enables the systematic measurement of both management practices and performance indicators.

Although there have been several efforts to create benchmarking tools for the construction industry, few efforts have focused on architecture offices. Therefore, this research aims to explicitly identify management practices that can be used for this type of organization and to coordinate among multiple actors to find the best way to measure their performance, other than the fulfilment of schedules and budgets.

This paper aims to understand what prevents established law firms from embracing digitalization and discusses barriers to solving the emerging ambidexterity problem. Law firms have been organized in the same way for decades. However, digital opportunities are emerging and new competitors are challenging established firms. This presents established law firms with an ambidexterity problem: How can law firms simultaneously uphold their successful way of working while entering a new world of digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning?

Previous research suggests that law firms are slow in digital transformation, compared to other Professional Service Firms (PSFs). In this paper, the authors explore why this happens. Interview data from representatives in law firms are complemented with data from architects as well as legal industry data and field notes. The data have been analyzed to spot patterns and emerging themes.

The authors find that established law firms face structural and cultural barriers to applying ambidextrous solutions. When comparing law firms with architecture firms, the authors see that while established architecture firms have combined digital exploration with ongoing exploitation, established law firms have focused on exploitation, leaving digital exploration to new legal tech firms. This difference can be attributed to industry context and professional culture.

This paper shows that both structural and contextual ambidexterity is a challenge for established law firms. This paper contributes to the understanding of barriers to embrace digital technology, and supports practitioners in efforts to remove these barriers.

Digital media is reshaping architectural design by introducing new tools, methods and workflows. Among various AEC tools, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has gained popularity due to its collaboration platform enabling cross-disciplinary teamwork during whole life cycle of buildings. BIM has further transformed culture and processes associated with design, construction and operation of buildings, hence triggering new building regulations in developed countries. However, in developing countries, BIM implementation is facing several barriers, such as lack of investment in technology and training, hesitation in quitting traditional tools and practices, etc. The purpose of this paper is to highlight potentials of BIM for developing countries, which are in need of more sustainable policies for enhancing their economic and environmental performances.

Throughout the text, a literature review on BIM including its dimensions and benefits, impacts on architectural design and adoption in global and local contexts is provided. In case study, surveys and structured interviews are conducted with BIM user and non-BIM user architects throughout Pakistan. Beyond 2D/3D modeling, the use of BIM applications for sustainable design process such as scheduling (4D), cost estimation (5D), performance analysis and facilities management (6D) is investigated.

Using analytical tools of an online surveying tool and SPSS statistical software, barriers and motivations for BIM implementation in Pakistan are determined. Strategies for further BIM adoption and implementation via “education and training institutions” and “supporting organizations and institutions” are defined.

As a developing country, Pakistan shall be moving the barriers for the spread of BIM technology. Recent research covered the entire AEC sector (Masood et al., 2014; Sohu et al., 2017; Ali et al., 2018), yet this paper focuses specifically on architectural design and practice field. In order to find out experiences and expectations about BIM technology in the architecture sector, professionals are surveyed and four chief architects are interviewed. How far have Pakistani architects adopted BIM? For which project types and scales is BIM more serviceable for them? Which BIM applications are they implementing to overcome the limitations in their professional practice? In Pakistan, where sustainability, in terms of scheduling, cost estimation, performance analysis and facilities management, is an indispensible measure for local practices, has implementation of BIM technology achieved sustainability in architectural design process? What are the motivations of Pakistani architects for becoming BIM users in future?

The purpose of this research is to expand a better understanding of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives affect climate for innovation and opportunism within architectural design firms (ADFs).

The literature review and discussions with industry practitioners identified an initial list of variables. A questionnaire survey was developed, validated and delivered to employees working in ADFs. 226 valid responses were collected. Then, the structural equation modeling (SEM) method was employed to empirically investigate the relationships between CSR performance, climate for innovation and opportunism in a single integrative model.

The results empirically support that CSR performance has a positive effect on climate for innovation and a negative effect on opportunism. In addition, climate for innovation shows a negative effect on opportunism.

This research highlights that CSR performance is essential for ADFs to better achieve sustainable development. By doing CSR activities, climate for innovation in ADFs is expected to be improved, and a sense of opportunism is mitigated. The findings of this paper are explicitly delivered in the context of Vietnamese ADFs and could not be straightforwardly generalized or translated to the construction industry or other sectors in different research contexts.

The findings show that a climate for innovation is crucial in ADFs. Business managers are encouraged to employ CSR initiatives to foster an innovation climate and reduce a sense of opportunism within ADFs.

This study is one of the first attempts to investigate the relationships between CSR performance, climate for innovation, and opportunism within ADFs. While the findings highlight the critical role of CSR performance, the study argues that CSR should be carefully implemented because there are no “one-size-fits-all” CSR strategies for different business contexts.

The causal relationships between factors related to building information modelling (BIM) adoption in the Thai architectural and engineering design industry are presented. A model is proposed to explain and forecast the adoption behaviours in the industry. This paper aims to define and compare policies for the adoption of BIM using a company case study.

The system dynamics (SD) approach was used. Four companies were selected as case studies for formulating a causal loop diagram. One of the companies was chosen for collecting the quantitative data for the SD model simulation during a ten-month study period. Tests of model validation were conducted for confirmation of, and confidence in, the model.

An SD model was formulated for studying BIM adoption. Four policies of BIM adoption were defined to compare with the normal operating business for the company and used as the case study. The quantitative outputs of the SD model revealed that BIM training was the best choice to optimise company performance.

The case studies comprised architectural and engineering design companies in Thailand; therefore, the findings may not be generalisable to other Thai construction organisations or to other countries.

The methodology and findings can be used as guidelines for other organisations or countries that are considering BIM adoption to improve their operations.

The paper highlights the optimum policy for BIM adoption to achieve efficient and effective implementation.

This paper presents a conceptual framework to store, manage and retrieve facility programming information called a Facility Programming Product Model (FPPM). The FPPM represents an ‘open’ information framework that members of the facility team (owner, planner, designer, constructor and operator) can utilize to satisfy their individual information needs as providers or users of the facility. The FPPM is a systematized approach to creating, organizing, and presenting facility programming information. The framework allows the owner's representative to review the programming product (the programme) for completeness by establishing a structure designed to access programming criteria at varying levels of abstraction, during any phase of the building life cycle. The result is a programme which can be used as a tool to assist decision making and to evaluate objectively performance criteria during the life of a project.

Women architects in the USA are generally satisfied with their work and feel that they are successful. Responses to a mailed survey form sent to women members of the American Institute of Architects throughout the USA allows a clear and unique profile of the woman architect to emerge. It appears that women architects have different values to women in general, and to women managers; but close to women engineers' values (with the exception of aesthetic value). There are, however, still many obstacles to be overcome by women architects before they achieve parity of treatment with their male counterparts.

The design documents are products of a process that aims to provide sufficient details to enable the contractor to efficiently implement the project at a realistic cost. Accordingly, it is expected that these design documents must be of high quality to engender the attainment of the desired project objectives. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect the quality of design documentation in construction projects in the context of a developing country.

This study used a descriptive research design involving professionals from firms offering services in areas of design and documentation, mainly architectural, quantity surveying and engineering. A total of 80 out of 84 questionnaires were received and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25, and a factor analysis approach was used to categorize the factors into smaller five groups.

The factors were subsequently categorized according to size, time, staff, quality and training-related factors. Collectively, large size of the project, inadequate supervision of junior design staff, low professional fees, procurement process and system, failure to adopt quality management systems and allocation or assigning of staff to more than one project at the same time have high influence (component loading of 700) in respective groups.

The reliance on data to analyze the factors of design documents in construction projects in developing economies context, using a Tanzanian exemplar, is considered a limitation. Developing countries with similar economic characteristics, procurement systems and cultural setup could benefit from the results of this study.

The study of factors affecting quality of design and documents in construction projects serves as a guide for built environment firms in Tanzania in conducting effective business and ensuring quality design documents, hence improved project performance. Understanding the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams as well as the impact of design documents on project performance is of great importance for the design teams of future projects and other decision-makers to pay attention when preparing design and related documents, especially during design stage of construction projects in developing countries.

The study contributes the knowledge by providing useful insights on the subject through a categorization of the factors affecting the quality of design documentation and exploring the nature of relationship between the design and construction teams in construction projects within a previously unexplored Tanzanian context focusing on a traditional procurement system for future improvement of project delivery, hence project success.