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Innovation is viewed as a major source of competitive advantage and is perceived to be a pre‐requisite for organizational success and survival. The ability to innovate depends largely on the way in which an organisation uses and exploits the resources available to it. The paper explores the importance of knowledge management (KM) and intellectual capital (IC) in organisations. It also considers the critical factors that lead to successful innovations and the role of KM and IC in this regard. The paper argues that effective management of knowledge assets involves a holistic approach to a host of factors. It is also suggested that there are a host of factors that combine in different ways to produce successful organizational innovations. It recommends that more is needed on the education and training of construction personnel and that these education and training programmes should reflect the nature of innovation and KM dimensions as very complex social processes.

The purpose of this paper was to examine UK shale gas viability. The recent commitment to shale gas exploration in the UK through fracking has given rise to well-publicised economic benefits and environmental concerns. There is potential for shale gas exploration in different parts of the UK over the next couple of decades. As argued in this study, if it does, it would transform the energy market and provide long-term energy security at affordable cost.

Interviews with senior practitioners and local communities were recorded, transcribed and entered into qualitative research software Nvivo. Validity and reliability were achieved by first assessing the plausibility in terms of already existing knowledge on some of the economic and environmental issues raised by participants.

Findings from this study suggest that environmental, health and safety risks can be managed effectively provided operational best practices are implemented and monitored by the Health and Safety Executive; Department of Energy, Climate Change; and the Mineral Planning Authorities. Participants further suggested that the integration of shale gas technology will protect consumers against rising energy prices and ensure that government does not get exposed to long-term geopolitical risks.

The present study corroborates the position that environmental, health and safety risks can be managed effectively provided operational best practices are implemented and monitored by the Health and Safety Executive; Department of Energy, Climate Change; and the Mineral Planning Authorities.

The present study confirms that the government is committed to ensuring that the nation maximises the opportunity that cost-effective shale gas technology presents, not just investment, cheap energy bills and jobs but providing an energy mix that will underpin the UK long-term economic prosperity.

The present study corroborates the position that environmental, health and safety risks can be managed effectively provided operational best practices are implemented and monitored by the Health and Safety Executive; Department of Energy, Climate Change; and the Mineral Planning Authorities. As shown in this study, the UK has a very strong regulatory regime compared to USA; therefore, environmental, health and safety risks will be very well managed and unlikely to escalate into the crisis being envisioned.

An investigation of the importance of the knowledge of the key individuals in organisations, knowledge within organisations as well as customer capital and knowledge; and how these might impact on sustainable competitive advantage of small and medium sized enterprises. The key challenges for knowledge‐intensive SMEs are the identification, capture, storing, mapping, dissemination and creation of knowledge from different perspectives and for different purposes.

Based on a thorough review of literature and field study, this paper presents and discusses the benefits of knowledge management (KM) for sustainable competitiveness in SMEs in surveying practices. A field study was conducted, involving 12 professionals from eleven organisations, of which 2 of the 11 organisations were surveying practices.

The paper highlights the role of strategies, tools and techniques which might be of assistance. The paper concludes that managing knowledge assets in SME is not easy. It is an integrated and complex social process, which has culture, people, finance, technology and organisational structures at its core. The paper also notes that SMEs can benefit from effective KM practices for sustainable competitiveness.

Recommendations are offered to surveying practices that are already involved with formal KM initiatives and those SMEs that aspire to do so.

An innovative study applying knowledge management principles to small and medium sized surveying practices.

The purpose of this research is to explore and test conceptual issues of how communities of practice (CoPs) are a recognized means of transferring knowledge. Analysis of data, derived from reflection upon experience gained by close full‐time engagement on three complex, large‐scale engineering construction projects. Five emerging themes that help to explain how CoPs may be nurtured to increase the effectiveness of project management are revealed: creating a knowledge environment, discovering and recruiting potential members, information sharing, time for communicating, and motivation and rewards. The development of CoPs requires time and the creation of a knowledge environment. In the complex world of international construction, most projects are unique physical undertakings, have teams that have never worked together before, have a limited duration, with participants located in numerous countries. Thus, there is a natural tension between the need and the reality that requires strong cross‐cultural leadership, and special techniques, if CoPs are to be utilized. This paper practically illustrates, based on rigorous organizational literature theory largely missing from the engineering community, how CoPs can be actually nurtured and used. The metaphor used to illustrate this should resonate strongly with construction engineers and designers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a maturity model developed to assess knowledge sharing (KS) for the Jordanian construction sector.

The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage consisted of the review of literature and documenting variables from the literature that highlight influence on KS in organizations. The second stage was designed for maturity model development by identifying the cultural factors that affect KS in the Jordanian construction sector through questionnaires and interviews. Factor analysis was used to find possible relationships between the cultural variables followed by semi-structured interviews. In the third stage the initial maturity model was refined through another set of semi-structured interviews.

The model presented in the paper includes three levels of maturity. The first level identifies whether the variable barely exists in company’s KS practices. The second level shows the occasional techniques which the company uses to increase KS activities. The final level demonstrates the importance of the variable in affecting KS as being fundamentally ingrained in the company’s vision, mission, strategy and operations.

The research has developed a model that can be used to measure the KS in an organization. Although the model has been applied to the construction industry, it can easily be modified to fit in the other sectors.

Construction management skills and competencies (CMSC) are of greatest importance for the industry to succeed and thrive. Some factors are critical to CSMC development. Hence, following the restrictions occasioned by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, this study reviewed and examined these factors to understand their level of influence in the remote development of CMSC adopted by the industry within and post the disruptions induced by the pandemic.

This study adopted a quantitative and descriptive research method. Data were sourced from 155 completed and usable survey questionnaires with registered and licensed engineering and construction professionals practicing in both private and public sectors in Nigeria. Participants were drawn from the membership database of the Nigeria Society of Engineers.

The identified critical success factors (CSFs) are categorised into organisational factors which include leadership, engineering project networks and eLearning, measurement and review system, strategy and resources, organisational culture, tradition and structure. In addition to individual factors in this order of influence; willingness to learn, promotion and career development, obtaining certified qualification and obtaining respect of peers are CSFs of remote development of CMSC in Nigeria.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to identify and examine the CSFs to remote development of CMSC tailored to developing countries in Africa. It explored the two categories of CSFs in both remote and traditional CMSC developments and established that the organisational factors remain positively dominants in traditional as well as in remote development of CMSC. It further ranked the individual factors in their order of influence in Nigeria, offered insights into motivation of construction management trainees in developing countries and offered areas of improvements such as quality of training and certification.

This paper aims to disseminate the knowledge integration process modelling throughout the phases of the early contractor involvement (ECI) procurement methodology, to optimise the benefit of ECI procurement method. The development of the model was aimed at taking advantage from the associated benefits of integrating knowledge and of ECI procurement. ECI provides contractors with an alternative means to tendering, designing and constructing projects. Thus, this paper explores knowledge interconnectivity and its integration involving numerous disciplines with various stakeholders to benefit from the collaborative environment of ECI.

The methodology implemented in the research includes a thorough literature review to establish the characteristics of the ECI tender stage as well as the characteristics of knowledge to be integrated in an ECI setting. Following this, an embedded case study research methodology was used involving three healthcare ECI projects undertaken by a Western Australian commercial contractor through 20 semi-structured interviews and project archival study, followed by the development of knowledge integration process models throughout the ECI process of the studied cases.

The research findings provide the basis to develop a knowledge integration process model throughout the ECI stages. The tender stage was found to be the most crucial stage for knowledge integration, particularly from the main contractor’s perspective to impart change and to influence the project outcome. The outcome of this research identifies the richness and interconnectivity of knowledge throughout the knowledge integration process in an ECI project starting from the intra-organisational knowledge integration process followed by the inter-organisational process of knowledge integration. This inside-out perspective of knowledge integration also revealed the need for mapping the implementation of knowledge integration from instrumental to incremental approach throughout the ECI stages in optimising the intended benefits of integrating knowledge.

This paper reports the development of a knowledge integration process model with the view to optimise the management effectiveness of integrating knowledge in ECI projects. Although knowledge integration and ECI can be considered existing and widely accepted concepts, the novelty of this research lies in the specific use of the knowledge integration process to analyse the knowledge flow, transformation and, hence, management in ECI projects. As it has been acknowledged that knowledge integration is beneficial but also a complex process, the methodology implemented here in modelling the process can be used as the basis to model knowledge integration in other ECI projects to further capitalise from ECI as a collaborative procurement method.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the gaps and potential future research avenues in the big data research specifically in the construction industry.

The paper adopts systematic literature review (SLR) approach to observe and understand trends and extant patterns/themes in the big data analytics (BDA) research area particularly in construction-specific literature.

A significant rise in construction big data research is identified with an increasing trend in number of yearly articles. The main themes discussed were big data as a concept, big data analytical methods/techniques, big data opportunities – challenges and big data application. The paper emphasises “the implication of big data in to overall sustainability” as a gap that needs to be addressed. These implications are categorised as social, economic and environmental aspects.

The SLR is carried out for construction technology and management research for the time period of 2007–2017 in Scopus and emerald databases only.

The paper enables practitioners to explore the key themes discussed around big data research as well as the practical applicability of big data techniques. The advances in existing big data research inform practitioners the current social, economic and environmental implications of big data which would ultimately help them to incorporate into their strategies to pursue competitive advantage. Identification of knowledge gaps helps keep the academic research move forward for a continuously evolving body of knowledge. The suggested new research avenues will inform future researchers for potential trending and untouched areas for research.

Identification of knowledge gaps helps keep the academic research move forward for continuous improvement while learning. The continuously evolving body of knowledge is an asset to the society in terms of revealing the truth about emerging technologies.

There is currently no comprehensive review that addresses social, economic and environmental implications of big data in construction literature. Through this paper, these gaps are identified and filled in an understandable way. This paper establishes these gaps as key issues to consider for the continuous future improvement of big data research in the context of the construction industry.

Refurbishment is inherently more sustainable than building new. However, planned and actual costs of refurbishment projects are bound to vary due to the complex nature of most such projects. This can affect the performance of refurbishment work. The purpose of this paper is to examine factors responsible for elemental cost variations between the actual and planned costs of refurbishment projects. The study also examines factors that contribute to differences in actual and planned cost between refurbishment and new build projects.

A quantitative approach was adopted for this study. A literature review identified factors responsible for elemental cost variations in refurbishment projects, as well as factors responsible for differences in actual and planned cost of new build and refurbishment projects. This was followed by a questionnaire survey of refurbishment projects across Malaysia. A total of 55 respondents provided input through a questionnaire survey to identify these factors.

This study demonstrates that procurement strategy (PS), inappropriate contractors (IC), poor project management (PPM), availability of funding, materials and equipment, and force majeure (FM) significantly affect refurbishment cost performance. Electrical installations, firefighting equipment, and painting were the building elements most affected by cost variations. A regression model for refurbishment cost prediction indicates that PS, IC, PPM, availability of funding, materials and equipment, and FM were significant predictors of building refurbishment cost performance.

This paper provides insight into the major factors affecting elemental cost variation of refurbishment works, as well as building elements most affected by cost variations and provides a model for predicting refurbishment cost performance.