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The lack of attention to quality control by house builders in the Australian State of Victoria has been a contentious issue for more than two decades. In an attempt to improve the quality of housing, various mechanisms have been adopted and discarded by industry‐based organisations and government legislation. While builders are encouraged to improve construction quality, little is known and published about the quality of housing produced by owner builders. This paper presents findings from an ongoing research project that compares the defects in houses built by owner builders with those of registered builders. The initial findings suggest that there is no significant difference between the quality of housing procured by owner builders and registered builders. The functional elements within a house where defects are likely to occur are identified and discussed. The paper concludes by suggesting that the use of a registered builder’s management expertise does not necessarily guarantee a better quality product.

Limited research has been conducted on quality management practices in the US homebuilding industry. The purpose of this paper is to establish which practices are actually applied, to what extent and to discuss how quality management can be best advanced in the industry.

A literature review is conducted on the application of quality in the construction and US homebuilding industry, followed by the analysis of 22 case studies of US homebuilders to provide details of quality implementation.

While quality management continues to expand and be adopted by industries globally, its application in the homebuilding industry is limited and immature. While quality management systems and quality award criteria are making an impact, the key focus is still being heavily placed on inspection processes, with limited use of structured and advanced quality approaches. Senior managers still see quality as a peripheral issue and are not convinced of its value. There is a need for leaders in the industry to embrace quality and to adopt consistent company‐wide systematic and strategic‐based approaches.

Limited research has been conducted into the application of quality management in the homebuilding industry. This study of 22 leading homebuilders provides insights into the actual practices of quality management. Recommendations are provided as a guide for future direction for quality in the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption process of high performance building technologies, including alternative wall systems, in hot‐humid climates. Challenges faced by homebuilders adopting high performance building technologies, and resulting energy performance are discussed.

The paper is a case study of four homebuilders using high performance building technologies, including advanced framing, panelised and modular. For each homebuilder, a baseline and a demonstration house were evaluated for energy performance and technology adoption. Homebuilders were interviewed to identify implementation challenges and barriers faced during the construction process.

The advanced framing, modular and panelised houses used 50 percent, 42 percent, and 35 percent less energy when compared to the traditional stick‐built. Further, the modular appeared to have the greatest opportunity to boost performance for least cost. Participating builders identified cost as the top constraint to a wide adoption of high performance criteria, followed by a slow learning curve and the lack of proper marketing channels to transition from construction to sale.

Several limitations of the research restrict generalisation of findings: results are based on a small sample of homebuilders; and results reflect energy performance in a hot and humid climate. It is likely that relative energy usage will change as the size, scope, and design complexity of the common element changes.

Findings from this study will contribute to a better understanding of the usability of high performance technologies and ease the transition towards implementing high performance criteria into every builder company's culture.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the data collected by the House Builders Federation (HBF)/National House Building Council (NHBC) surveys are used in practice to improve the service provided to the customers, the transition of any changes into practice and the overall management of the customer satisfaction process by the builder.

A qualitative approach to the research was adopted, and the findings from the interviews provide an indication of the views from a range of private/speculative house builders relating to the areas of customer satisfaction and the ratings provided through industry-based surveys.

This paper has uncovered the views and opinions of private house builders relating to customer satisfaction and five-star ratings. The findings provide evidence that the house building industry is not fully engaged with the HBF five-star-related concept and that they provide a differing level of service in relation to customer satisfaction.

The research concluded that the customer can be manipulated by the builders in some cases causing a bias in the market; on the whole, the customer satisfaction surveys and star rating are simply seen as a marketing tool, used by the builders marketing department as a sign of quality and a way to promote the company.

This paper is of interest to private house builders and the wider construction industry and will aid their understanding of not only generic customer satisfaction but also in particular customer satisfaction in new build housing and quality-related ratings/targets applied by industry bodies.

The paper provides an insight to house builders practices by examining the use of the HBF/NHBC survey results and how they are used to manage and improve the service provided to the customer, and the results therefore are of value to the end home buyer and the wider house building industry.

Brian Leavy interviews Chris Kuenne and John Danner about research into entrepreneurial personality published in their new book Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win Corporate.

By studying personality types, executives can learn how different types of successful entrepreneurs function, how they’re wired, motivated, lead and manage.

Using Kuenne’s and Danner’s“Builder Personality Discovery” instrument, corporations can begin to recognize which types of potential entrepreneurs they have, and then how best to support and reward their efforts in creating new business value.

Each typically interacts differently to five major dynamic challenges that every business builder faces, the “solution dynamic,” the “team dynamic,” the “customer dynamic,” the “sponsor dynamic” and the ‘scale dynamic.’

Essential insights for corporate leaders championing entrepreneurial business builders in their firms and for assessing leaders of potential acquisitions.

This paper aims to study house builder opinions of energy-efficient homes in the UK. The days of inconsiderate construction methods and disregard for the environment are becoming a thing of the past. If zero carbon (Zc) standards are to be implemented across all new homes within the UK, it is essential that house builders are willing and able to construct such homes to the necessary standards and to the volumes required. Although new generations of low carbon (Lc) and energy-efficient homes are beginning to break into the marketplace, house builders remain reluctant to introduce complex technologies during high effort builds.

The findings from questionnaire responses provide an indication of the views of house builders relating to the incentives encouraging and barriers preventing them from producing mass market energy-efficient homes.

This paper has uncovered the views and opinions of house builders relating to energy-efficient homes. The findings provide evidence that the house building industry is not fully engaged with the energy-efficiency concept; that house builders portray an inconsistent level of confidence in their ability to deliver energy-efficient homes; and that Government targets are too ambitious.

The findings within this paper provide an overview of the opinions of house builders relating to energy-efficient homes using statistical analysis.

A game‐theoretic model of moral hazard associated with unobservable builder effort is postulated to examine the effectiveness of homeowner warranties and building code enforcement by local government in assuring desired builders’ effort. Builders have an incentive to claim and charge for high unobservable effort level in constructing homes, but actually exert low effort to earn higher profits. We find that a homeowner warranty increases the unobservable effort of the builder, but cost minimizing behavior by the builder results in an effort choice less than the most efficient level. On the other hand, building code enforcement essentially converts unobservable builder effort to observable effort and efficient effort is indeed possible if enforcement cost is justifiable. However, an overly strict building code may be detrimental to buyers. The conditions under which a buyer would prefer one alternative over the other and where both measures can co‐exist are also examined. The model provides several interesting implications and testable hypotheses. A survey of builders and building codes provides preliminary evidence to support the proposed model.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of independence principle of refund guarantees (RGs) and how to make the best of an arbitration clause in the guarantees so that a Korean shipbuilder, a guarantor and an export credit agency (ECA) may possibly protect themselves from buyers’ unlawful demand.

This paper firstly introduces a brief elucidation about RG and the concept of independence principle. By way of presenting factual backgrounds, legal and policy evaluation and analyses, this paper covered all issues and disputes arising out of one shipbuilding contract and the independent RG drawn from the shipbuilding contract, through in-depth cases studies of a judicial case on the matter of independence principle of RG between the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee) and the guarantor reviewed by an English court, an arbitration case regarding whether the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee) has any right of refund in the event of the acceptance of a repudiatory breach by the applicant (the builder) in the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, and the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee)’s appeal to an English court against the award and a judicial case reviewing whether the guarantor has right of reimbursement in accordance with the terms of the export bond insurance with the Korean ECA.

While most RGs, in practice, are drawn as an independent guarantee which is payable on call without any evidence of default, there is another payment scheme in RGs, such as payment upon the submission of an arbitral award which may enhance the application of RGs in shipbuilding contracts. The paper suggested that under these circumstances, Korean builders may opt to make their shipbuilding contract be governed by Korean laws, with the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board as a competent arbitral jurisdiction and forum as far as possible.

This paper proposes prudent approaches and considerations in the issuance and application of RGs which are independent from shipbuilding contracts. The hope is to increase awareness in the utility of arbitration system as well as for fiduciary Korean banks and ECAs to play a more pivotal role in guiding shipbuilding industry stakeholders.

This paper seeks to highlight the systemic conditions that facilitate the emergence, longevity, and effectiveness of bridge‐builders across organizations.

Researchers conducted longitudinal case studies in six One‐Stop Career Centers across the USA over four years. Interviews were conducted with approximately 20 people in various positions at each of the sites visited. The data analyzed spanned the four years of the study.

Researchers uncovered particular characteristics present in individual bridge‐builders that enabled them to accomplish their goals. This research indicates that, when the right conditions intersected with the right type of person, champions emerged who helped move the organization in new and innovative directions.

This paper provides an outline of the organizational change that can happen in the disability field. By delineating bridge‐builders and the context in which they operate, others can identify the conditions within organizations to help them move forward.

The paper ethnographically explores modes of urban resistance emerging in tandem with climate change mitigation programs in Copenhagen.

Building on 11 months of fieldwork with a Danish construction enterprise, the paper examines the politics of urban climate change mitigation programs through the lens of a group of builders' struggles to rethink and resolve dilemmas related to environmental concerns in construction and urban development.

Based on an analysis of a specific construction project connected to a larger urban climate change mitigation program in Copenhagen, the paper shows how the builders deliberately move between different perspectives and positions as they navigate the shifting power relations of urban planning. The paper argues that this form of crafty resistance enables the builders to maneuver the political landscape of urban planning as they seek to appropriate the role of “urban planners” themselves.

Taking up recent discussions of “resistance” in anthropology and cognate disciplines (e.g. Theodossopoulos, 2014; Bhungalia, 2020; Prasse-Freeman, 2020), the paper contributes an ethnographic analysis of struggles between diverging and, at times, competing modes of engagement in urban climate change mitigation programs and thus sheds light on how professional actors negotiate the ambiguity of “sustainability” in urban planning.