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Article
Publication date: 30 March 2022

Serdar Durdyev, Kerim Koc, Ferhat Karaca and Asli Pelin Gurgun

Reportedly, green roof (GR) makes a significant contribution towards a truly sustainable-built environment; however, its implementation is yet to hit a sufficient level in…

Abstract

Purpose

Reportedly, green roof (GR) makes a significant contribution towards a truly sustainable-built environment; however, its implementation is yet to hit a sufficient level in developing countries. Thus, this study assesses GR implementation strategies in developing countries by providing a comparative analysis through experts in Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a four-step methodological approach to achieve the research aim: literature review, focus group discussion, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) analysis and correlation analyses. First, a literature review followed by a focus group discussion is used to determine 18 (out of 25 initially) strategies for the selected context and these are classified into three categories: governmental and institutional support, knowledge and information and policy and regulation. Afterward, the identified GR strategies are evaluated using the FAHP with the data gathered from the experts in the countries studied. Finally, correlation analyses were used to observe the strength of agreement between the assessments of experts from the included countries.

Findings

The findings indicate that financial incentives, low-cost government loans and subsidies and tax rebates are the essential strategies for the wider adoption of GR. Evaluating the policy and regulations strategies also showed that mandatory GR policies and regulations and better enforcement of the developed GR policies are ranked as the most prominent strategies. The findings show a low level of agreement among respondents from Kazakhstan, while there is a high level of agreement between the experts in Malaysia and Turkey.

Research limitations/implications

The research contribution is twofold. First (research implication), the study identifies the strategies through a complete literature review. Second, the identified strategies are evaluated through the lenses of experts in three developing countries which are hoped to provide (practical contribution) a better understanding of the most effective strategies that require attention and enable the frontline stakeholders (particularly government authorities) to focus on them.

Originality/value

The study findings provide a good point of departure to explore the strategies for broader adoption of GRs in developing economic setting.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 March 2021

Asli Pelin Gurgun and Kerim Koc

As a remedy to usually voluminous, complicated and not easily readable construction contracts, smart contracts can be considered as an effective and alternative solution. However…

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Abstract

Purpose

As a remedy to usually voluminous, complicated and not easily readable construction contracts, smart contracts can be considered as an effective and alternative solution. However, the construction industry is merely known as a frontrunner for fast adoption of recent technological advancements. Numerous administrative risks challenge construction companies to implement smart contracts. To highlight this issue, this study aims to assess the administrative risks of smart contract adoption in construction projects.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature survey is conducted to specify administrative risks of smart contracts followed by a pilot study to ensure that the framework is suitable to the research question. The criteria weights are calculated through the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process method, followed by a sensitivity analysis based on degree of fuzziness, which supports the robustness of the developed hierarchy and stability of the results. Then, a focus group discussion (FGD) is performed to discuss the mitigation strategies for the top-level risks in each risk category.

Findings

The final framework consists of 27 sub-criteria, which are categorized under five main criteria, namely, contractual, cultural, managerial, planning and relational. The findings show that (1) regulation change, (2) lack of a driving force, (3) works not accounted in planning, (4) shortcomings of current legal arrangements and (5) lack of dispute resolution mechanism are the top five risks challenging the adoption of smart contracts in construction projects. Risk mitigation strategies based on FGD show that improvements for the semi-automated smart contract drafting are considered more practicable compared to full automation.

Originality/value

The literature is limited in terms of the adoption of smart contracts, while the topic is receiving more attention recently. To support easy prevalence of smart contracts, this study attempts the most challenging aspects of smart contract adoption.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 February 2020

Asli Pelin Gurgun and Kerim Koc

Competent contractors are one of the critical stakeholders to achieve targeted sustainability objectives in green building (GB) projects. Prior to contractor selection…

Abstract

Purpose

Competent contractors are one of the critical stakeholders to achieve targeted sustainability objectives in green building (GB) projects. Prior to contractor selection, prequalification is an important step, which requires contractors with certain capabilities in addition to traditional features. This study aims to develop a systematic and practical model for prequalification in GB projects using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach by adopting the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).

Design/methodology/approach

The AHP model with 8 main criteria groups and 25 sub-criteria is structured based on literature review and professional opinions accompanied by a pilot study. Then, interviews with experts, who are experienced in the development and application phases of GB projects in Turkey, are arranged to collect judgements. The agreement levels between different groups of experts are analysed via Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Model applicability is tested on six hypothetical contractors for practicality.

Findings

The results show that i) financial capabilities, ii) legal status and iii) sustainability groups are the top three main criteria, while i) compliance with schedule requirements of the client, ii) current legal status including suits, iii) negative litigation history records, iv) contractor's compliance capacity to client's sustainability checklist for the proposed project and v) sustainability with lower life cycle cost (durability, maintenance, constructability) are the top five sub-criteria.

Originality/value

There is a gap in the literature analysing contractor prequalification phase in GB projects. This study attempts to fill this lack provided with a practical evaluation tool.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 27 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 April 2022

Asli Pelin Gurgun and Kerim Koc

Contract incompleteness with deficiency, inconsistency, defectiveness, and ambiguity in contract clauses, which can cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations, may result with…

Abstract

Purpose

Contract incompleteness with deficiency, inconsistency, defectiveness, and ambiguity in contract clauses, which can cause misunderstandings and misinterpretations, may result with disputes in projects. This study aims to investigate contract incompleteness factors with a hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Contract incompleteness factors were ranked by fuzzy VIKOR (Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method, and the most significant factors were subjected to fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to examine their causal relationships. The study is not limited to ranking the identified factors solely, since their cause-effect interactions are also essential for proper risk management in construction projects.

Findings

Hybrid use of multi-criteria analysis reveals that ambiguity in enforceability including excessive demands and significant amendments in the scope of works are the top two causal contract incompleteness factors, while lack of implementation details and focus of focal point, and insufficient supporting and technical documents are the most affected ones.

Originality/value

Contractual causes of disputes due to contract incompleteness factors other than requirements of the contracts have been rarely investigated in the literature. The research is one of the first studies in the literature investigating the causal relationship among factors in construction contracts, which might lead to project disputes. Findings are expected to improve contract drafting, eventually contributing to effective risk management in construction projects.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2024

Handan Kunkcu, Kerim Koc and Asli Pelin Gurgun

Work–family conflict is one of the most challenging stressors for construction industry professionals to cope with emotional problems. This study aims to propose a model linking…

Abstract

Purpose

Work–family conflict is one of the most challenging stressors for construction industry professionals to cope with emotional problems. This study aims to propose a model linking work–family conflict and high-quality relationships among project team members and explore mediating effects of life and job satisfactions.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical framework was established based on the spillover theory and social exchange theory. Data were obtained by a questionnaire survey conducted with 328 respondents working in construction projects. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test interrelationships among work–family conflict, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and high-quality relationship.

Findings

The results indicate that work–family conflict is negatively associated with both job and life satisfactions of construction professionals. In addition, there were direct and positive relationships between satisfaction domains and high-quality relationship capacity. The findings further support that job satisfaction plays a mediating role between work–family conflict and high-quality relationship among construction professionals, while life satisfaction does not mediate the relationship.

Originality/value

The effects of interrole conflicts on the context of satisfaction have been investigated previously; however, there is a lack of knowledge regarding its influence on high-quality relationship among project team members. This study extends the body of knowledge on high-quality relationships among project team members to understand how conflict and satisfaction factors influence interpersonal relationships in construction project management.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 November 2022

Asli Pelin Gurgun, Kerim Koc and Handan Kunkcu

Completing construction projects within the planned schedule has widely been considered as one of the major project success factors. This study investigates the use of…

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Abstract

Purpose

Completing construction projects within the planned schedule has widely been considered as one of the major project success factors. This study investigates the use of technologies to address delays in construction projects and aims to address three research questions (1) to identify the adopted technologies and proposed solutions in the literature, (2) to explore the reasons why the delays cannot be prevented despite disruptive technologies and (3) to determine the major strategies to prevent delays in construction projects.

Design/methodology/approach

In total, 208 research articles that used innovative technologies, methods, or tools to avoid delays in construction projects were investigated by conducting a comprehensive literature review. An elaborative content analysis was performed to cover the implemented technologies and their transformation, highlighted research fields in relation to selected technologies, focused delay causes and corresponding delay mitigation strategies and emphasized project types with specific delay causes. According to the analysis results, a typological framework with appropriate technological means was proposed.

Findings

The findings revealed that several tools such as planning, imaging, geo-spatial data collection, machine learning and optimization have widely been adopted to address specific delay causes. It was also observed that strategies to address various delay causes throughout the life cycle of construction projects have been overlooked in the literature. The findings of the present research underpin the trends and technological advances to address significant delay causes.

Originality/value

Despite the technological advancements in the digitalization era of Industry 4.0, many construction projects still suffer from poor schedule performance. However, the reason of this is questionable and has not been investigated thoroughly.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 May 2021

Kerim Koc and Asli Pelin Gurgun

Conflicts, claims and disputes are inherent in most construction projects. Acceptable degree of commonality in the interpretation of contract provisions is critical in effective…

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Abstract

Purpose

Conflicts, claims and disputes are inherent in most construction projects. Acceptable degree of commonality in the interpretation of contract provisions is critical in effective contract administration. This study aims to assess the effects of contract ambiguity factors on construction conflicts, highlighting the causes of divergent interpretations using fuzzy technique for order of preference by the similarity-to-ideal-solution (TOPSIS) method.

Design/methodology/approach

Fuzzy TOPSIS framework with 27 ambiguity factors is constructed by conducting a comprehensive literature review, accompanied by a pilot study. Questionnaire survey is formed, and one-to-one interviews are arranged with 35 contract administration experts.

Findings

The findings indicate that (1) ambiguity due to excessive changes in the bill of quantity (BOQ) (including ambiguous provisions related to BOQ changes), (2) incomplete clauses that do not describe the scope of the intended work purely, (3) ambiguity due to excessive amendments in the scope of works (including ambiguous provisions related to scope changes), (4) ambiguous enforceability including excessive demands and (5) ambiguous goal and performance requirements are the top five ambiguity factors affecting construction conflicts.

Research limitations/implications

Presented framework is performed referring to ambiguity factors in all type of construction contracts in the general sense. However, the identified factors may vary depending on the project type, contract type, procurement method or use of standard contract forms (such as NEC, FIDIC).

Originality/value

The literature lacks the investigation of ambiguity factors in construction contracts, yet the assessment of the effects of contract ambiguity is essential to minimize conflicts.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 29 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2022

Kerim Koc, Ömer Ekmekcioğlu and Asli Pelin Gurgun

Central to the entire discipline of construction safety management is the concept of construction accidents. Although distinctive progress has been made in safety management…

Abstract

Purpose

Central to the entire discipline of construction safety management is the concept of construction accidents. Although distinctive progress has been made in safety management applications over the last decades, construction industry still accounts for a considerable percentage of all workplace fatalities across the world. This study aims to predict occupational accident outcomes based on national data using machine learning (ML) methods coupled with several resampling strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Occupational accident dataset recorded in Turkey was collected. To deal with the class imbalance issue between the number of nonfatal and fatal accidents, the dataset was pre-processed with random under-sampling (RUS), random over-sampling (ROS) and synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE). In addition, random forest (RF), Naïve Bayes (NB), K-Nearest neighbor (KNN) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed as ML methods to predict accident outcomes.

Findings

The results highlighted that the RF outperformed other methods when the dataset was preprocessed with RUS. The permutation importance results obtained through the RF exhibited that the number of past accidents in the company, worker's age, material used, number of workers in the company, accident year, and time of the accident were the most significant attributes.

Practical implications

The proposed framework can be used in construction sites on a monthly-basis to detect workers who have a high probability to experience fatal accidents, which can be a valuable decision-making input for safety professionals to reduce the number of fatal accidents.

Social implications

Practitioners and occupational health and safety (OHS) departments of construction firms can focus on the most important attributes identified by analysis results to enhance the workers' quality of life and well-being.

Originality/value

The literature on accident outcome predictions is limited in terms of dealing with imbalanced dataset through integrated resampling techniques and ML methods in the construction safety domain. A novel utilization plan was proposed and enhanced by the analysis results.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 30 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2017

Roberto Moro Visconti, Anna Doś and Asli Pelin Gurgun

The aim of the chapter is to compare Public–Private Partnership (PPP) healthcare investments in developed countries with those in emerging economies, analysing the sustainability…

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to compare Public–Private Partnership (PPP) healthcare investments in developed countries with those in emerging economies, analysing the sustainability issues of health-led growth. Healthcare PPP best practices in developed nations represent a template that catching-up economies may follow with local adaptations. A comparison starts from the UK case and then examines the Turkish experience as an ideal bridge between advanced and developing countries. Healthcare investments are a primary social infrastructure, with a deep impact on poverty alleviation. Demand for the infrastructure necessary to provide healthcare services has increased substantially in developing and emerging economies due to rapid economic growth, industrialization and urbanization, while public supply is limited by budget constraints. PPP best practices provide a global benchmark (World bank, 2015b). Integrated supply and value chains and management of viability milestone improve healthcare PPP sustainability and bankability. Different legal frameworks and funding issues are not thoroughly investigated. Careful customization and local fine-tuning of best practices require further scrutiny. Homogenization of best practices improves comparison of different projects, fostering competition and easing cross-border investments, accompanied by knowledge transfer, sharing and consequent value co-creation. Best practices improve value for money, bankability and resilience of PPP investments, with potential benefits for healthcare services and quality of life. This chapter makes an innovative and comprehensive comparison of healthcare PPP projects worldwide, looking for a common denominator of value-enhancing rules and resilient pro-growth strategies.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Public–Private Partnerships in Developing and Emerging Economies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-494-1

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2017

Abstract

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Public–Private Partnerships in Developing and Emerging Economies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-494-1

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