Search results

The purpose of this paper is to validate a proposed framework of library value as the relationships between diverse stakeholders’ perceptions of valued effect of a library and of causes for the effect. It does so through adaptation of the “five whys” inquiry, a tool for uncovering root causes used extensively for process improvement. A “library value wheel” graphically illustrates a diverse set of stakeholders (i.e. faculty, students, university administrators, librarians, donors, and library employees) and their perceptions of the most valued effects of the library. To begin this exploration the researchers have selected faculty as the initial stakeholder to study because of their important influence in the academy. The following research questions guide the study: What effects of the library do faculty most value? What are perceived causes of these valued effects? What effects of the library do faculty perceive other stakeholders [e.g. students and administrators] most value? What variations among the causes faculty identify for valued effects emerge from use of the five why inquiry?

This qualitative study consists of a series of individual and group interviews with faculty members representing different academic disciplines and rank at one US university. Adapting the “five whys” inquiry, the researchers conducted sufficient individual interviews to reach data saturation (typically 15 to 30 interviews) to identify root causes that address perceptions about value the academic library provides to faculty. The interviews were audio taped and transcribed for data analysis; the results were sent to the interviewees for a member check. In addition, the results of the analysis were validated in a focus group session with faculty members of the library advisory group. Lastly, the identified valued library effects and their causes were compared to elements of value identified in the literature.

Several root causes of perceived value were identified, with caution to generalize; among these are: increase my productivity; expand student ability; do my job; save money; indulge intellectual curiosity; not feel frustrated; meet accreditation criteria; and change the University.

The study emphasizes that value involves the stakeholders in the identification of the valued effect of the library. The “five whys” inquiry delves deeply and arrives at a root cause of value that will allow librarians to take steps to maximize an institutional perception that of the value the library provides its community. It is often difficult for stakeholders to articulate why the library is or is not of value and this approach will help them do so. In addition to eliciting the perceived value of the library to the faculty, the study also gathered faculty perceptions of causes of valued library effect on students and administrators. The study also introduced the “library value wheel” which broadly defines the causes of valued effects on stakeholders of libraries. The study's empirical data will be integrated into this framework in subsequent studies. Since value is a political tool, involving the faculty and focusing on their perceptions will be important for advocating library support. This study will communicate to librarians reasons faculty perceive the library to be of value. In essence, this approach partners influential stakeholders with librarians to develop strategies for maximizing the value of the library.

Claims are increasingly becoming a norm in construction projects and thus an area that is attracting interventions through researches. This paper aims to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects.

This is correlation study type of study that attempts to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Significant causes and effects of construction claims were determined using one-sample t-test. To establish the relationship, the significant causes and effects of construction claims were correlated using bivariate correlation analysis.

Among the significant causes, variations, change of scope of the project and delay in completion of works have high level of significant positive relationship with five to six other causes and positive relationship with multiple effects ranging from five to six. Besides, among significant effects, delay in completion and delivering of construction projects, poor contractual relationship among parties and extension of time have significant positive relationship with multiple causes.

The findings of this study are limited to causes-causes relationship and causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. This means effects–effects relationship was not covered that could be an important area to investigate as some of causes and effects are at times termed interchangeably.

With reference to previous studies which have focused on determining the causes and effects of construction claims, the findings of the current study have specific contribution on claims management as it divulges the causes of constructions claims that have multiplier effects to the project as a result of their linkage.

The paper unveils causes of claims with multiplier effects to construction projects for project participants to devise strategies to minimize and consequently eliminate them.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural relationship model to study the relationship between causes and effects of poor communication and information exchange in construction projects using Smart-PLS.

The first method of this research is to identify the causes and effects factors of poor communication in construction projects from the extant of literature. The data used to develop the model was collected using a questionnaire survey, which targeted construction practitioners in the Malaysian construction industry. A five-point Likert type scale was used to rate the significance of the factors. The factors were classified under their relevant construct/group using exploratory factor analysis. A hypothetical model was developed and then transformed into Smart-PLS in which the hypothetical model suggested that each group of the cause factors has a direct impact on the effect groups. The hypothesis was tested using t-values and p-values. The model was assessed for its inner and outer components and achieved the threshold criterion. Further, the model was verified by engaging 14 construction experts to verify its applicability in the construction project setting.

The study developed a structural equation model to clarify the relationships between causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects. The model explained the degree of relationships among causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects.

The published academic and non-academic literature introduced many studies on the issue of communication including the definitions, importance, barriers to effective communication and means of poor communication. However, these studies ended up only on the general issue of communication lacking an in-depth investigation of the causes and effects of poor communication in the construction industry. The study implemented advanced structural modeling to study the causes and effects. The questionnaire, the data and concluding results fill the identified research gap of this study. The addressed issue is also of interest because communication is considered one of the main knowledge areas in construction management.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop theoretical underpinnings using TCE, and second, to run the analysis using an advanced tool such as structural equation modeling (SEM).

This study was conducted in the construction industry in Tanzania. A questionnaire-based survey method was used. A total of 308 respondents participated in the study. The relationships between the cause and effect factors were analyzed using SEM.

The important findings are as follows:cost overrun can be explained by consultant-related and material-related factors; disputes can be explained by cost overrun; arbitration can be explained by consultant-related, cost overrun, and dispute factors; litigation can be explained by client-related, disputes, and arbitration factors; and abandonment can be explained by consultant-related, external-related, disputes, arbitration, and litigation factors.

The main contributions of this study are theoretical development and comprehensive analyses of “cause” and “effect” factors of delays in the construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the causes and effects of delays in public sector housing projects in Ghana.

A purposive sampling approach was used in selecting the respondents for the study. These were experts working on various state housing construction projects in Ghana.

Results from the study showed that the critical factors that contribute to project delays in Ghana are; delay in payment to contractor/supplier, inflation/price fluctuation, price increases in materials, inadequate funds from sponsors/clients, variation orders and poor financial/capital market. The critical effects of delays are cost overrun, time overrun, litigation, lack of continuity by client and arbitration.

This paper is limited to causes and effects of project delays in Ghana based on data collected from only one state institution. Due to geographic constraints the researchers were unable to sample state institutions across Ghana involved in various housing projects.

This paper has documented the critical state housing construction project delay factors in Ghana. The results will help project managers and policymakers appreciate the effects of these delays on project outcomes.

Measures aimed at reducing cost of housing projects in Ghana can translate into significant benefits to the poor and support achievement of government objective of providing affordable housing to low income citizens.

This research focussed on the key factors and best practices that lead to the success of state housing projects within the Ghanaian context.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the determinants of arable crop farmers’ awareness to causes and effects of climate change in south western Nigeria.

Using primary data, 150 arable crop farmers in Ogun State were selected through a multi stage sampling technique. Survey method was used to elicit information on farmers’ socioeconomic, production characteristics, and their level of awareness to causes and effects of climate change. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, environmental awareness index (EAI), and Tobit regression analysis.

Most (81.08 percent) of the arable crop farmers were males with an average household size of eight persons, farming experience of 24 years and farm size of approximately 1 ha. The computed climate change EAI showed that only 47 percent of the respondents were aware of causes of climate change, while 68 percent were aware of its effects. Results further revealed that age, income from secondary occupation (p < 0.10), marital status, household size (p < 0.05), years of farming experience, frequency of extension contact, land size in hectare, and farm revenue (p < 0.01) were the determinants of respondents awareness to causes and effects of climate change.

The study recommended among others that, awareness should be created among arable crop farmers on climate change causes and effects for appropriate mitigation actions to be taken for improved agricultural productivity.

The study provided new empirical evidence on the awareness level of respondents to causes and effects of climate change on their production activities and livelihood in general. Implications for policy will be to provide a public education program that will target females, the poor, the illiterate, and the people in the economically active age group among others in order to create awareness and provide information and adequate knowledge on the causes and effects of climate change for proper mitigation and adaptation options.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a greenhouse gas (GHG) management model for mitigating GHG emission. GHG emission by way of human activities is causing catastrophic effects on the natural environment in the form of climate change and global warming. GHG management of different products, bodies and processes is going on worldwide, expressed through carbon footprints by using product life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a useful approach, but it only looks at the micro level of cause-effect scenarios rather than the macro level cause-effect scenarios of GHG emission. Therefore, a system to scrutinize underlined assumptions and values of such policies/strategies is an urgent necessity.

This paper uses the double-loop learning concept, which was proposed by Argyris in 1976, to develop a triple cause-effect model for the management of GHG emission. The proposed model has a knowledge system that introduces the learning loop of GHG emission and environmental impact management.

A case study is conducted to demonstrate how the proposed triple cause-effect model is operationalized. The ideas and benefits of the proposed model are further discussed.

A triple cause-effect model for the measurement and analysis of GHG emission is proposed in this paper to complement GHG management by using only product LCA. This paper seeks to show that GHG management should look at not only a single tree (product LCA approach) but also the whole forest (the proposed model).

To present the application of a business model for holistic uncertainty management for twenty‐first century manufacturing enterprises.

A questionnaire survey is carried out to UK manufacturing enterprises to collect relevant data, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis and cluster analysis are performed to infer the results.

It can be concluded that different manufacturing environments suffer different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery. The product tardy delivery performance in make‐to‐order (MTO) manufacturing environment is found significantly affected by a wide range of underlying causes of uncertainty. It is interesting to find that mixed‐mode (MM) manufacturing environment has an opposite outcome. Correlation results provide significant evidence that underlying causes of uncertainty do not have linear association with product tardy delivery. This finding reinforces the proposition that the effects of uncertainty are difficult to quantify due to the compound effect. The cluster analyses of the business environmental factors of the manufacturing enterprises in MM, make‐to‐stock (MTS) and MTO environments found that size of enterprise, product variety, product complexity, number of parts, ratio of buy vs make parts, the use of rough‐cut capacity planning, and the use of buffering or dampening techniques in production, influence the effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery.

Only UK manufacturing enterprises are investigated. The results will be relevant to MTO, MM and MTS manufacturing environments.

The application of the business model has provided useful knowledge to MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing enterprises on which underlying causes of uncertainty are significantly affecting their product tardy delivery performance.

A holistic approach such as the business model has given a solid foundation for the enterprises to evaluate their performance. Using the knowledge of significant underlying causes of uncertainty, the enterprises could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques.

This paper aims to develop a system dynamics (SD) model to identify causal relationships among the elements of failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), i.e. failure modes, effects and causes.

A causal loop diagram (CLD) has been developed based on the results obtained from interdependencies and correlations analysis among the FMEA elements through applying the integrated approach of FMEA-quality function deployment (QFD) developed by Shaker et al. (2019). The proposed model was examined in a steel manufacturing company to identify and model the causes and effects relationships among failure modes, effects and causes of a roller-transmission system.

Findings indicated interactions among the most significant failure modes, effects and causes. Moreover, corrective actions defined to eliminate or relieve critical failure causes. Consequently, production costs decreased, and the production rate increased due to eliminated/decreased failure modes.

The application of CLD illustrates causal relationships among FMEA elements in a more effective way and results in a more precise recognition of the root causes of the potential failure modes and their easy elimination/decrease. Therefore, applying the proposed approach leads to a better analysis of the interactions among FMEA elements, decreased system's failure rate and increased system availability.

The literature review indicated a few studies on the application of SD methodology in the maintenance area, and no study was performed on the causal interactions among FMEA elements through an FMEA-QFD based SD approach. Although the interactions of these elements are significant and helpful in risks ranking, researchers fail to investigate them sufficiently.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the latent interrelationships of causes and effects of design deficiencies (DDs) and to identify the most crucial ones by considering the interactions among them.

First, through a comprehensive literature review, the most critical causes of DDs were identified. The review eventuated in a list of 22 causes and 12 effects, which were categorized into six groups. Second, through the rules of system dynamics and the interactions between the causes and effects were modeled and illustrated using causal loop diagrams (CLDs). With the aid of semi-structured interviews with 20 competent experts, the resultant CLDs were also validated. Third, the opinions of 54 experts, who were chosen from the Iranian community of clients and consultants, were solicited concerning the degree of influence which each factor (causes or effects) exerts on others. Finally, the social network analysis (SNA) approach was deployed to analyze and prioritize factors based on the gathered data from experts.

SNA results indicated that factors such as “design firms' staff rework” and “design firms' loss of reputation” are the most central factors affecting DDs. The model results also identified that factors such as “schedule variance”, “workload” and “lack of quality control and supervision during the design phase” have the highest overall impact on DDs. In the end, some recommendations to address major factors and links were also put forward. Overall, more communications between the pair of stakeholder groups and continuous learning from project experiences are believed to be the main strategies.

It is believed that this study has provided a comprehensive understanding of causal mechanisms among factors, which can assist project managers of different parties (clients, contractors and consulting firms) in taking more effective actions to ameliorate the quality of design documents.