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Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are the live wire of construction industry in developing countries. These classes of establishments are most affected by economic contraction and turmoil, thus affecting their performance and survivability. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the survival determinants of construction consulting organization during economic contraction in Nigeria using quantity surveying firms as a focal point.

The study adopted the descriptive-survey design and quantitative data were collected through questionnaire purposely administered to quantity surveying firms in the Southwestern part of Nigeria. The data obtained from 99 quantity surveying firms on survival determinants were analysed using various statistical analysis such as mean score, standard deviation, Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, and so on. Principal component analysis was used to identify the principal components of survival determinants, while the factors were prioritized using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE).

The result of the analysis reveals eight factors that significantly determines the survival of firms during the period of economic contraction. Furthermore, the eight grouped factors were prioritized accordingly namely firm's innovation and diversification, ownership structure and networking, education level and management skills, and so on.

This study investigated the survival determinants of quantity surveying firms and prioritized it with the opinions of principal partners in quantity surveying establishments. As against obtaining large survey responses from all quantity surveyors in the study area that may not have practical experience of managing firms, the limited responses received provide valid basis to broaden the horizon of professionals and other stakeholders on the key determinants for firms to survive economic turmoil.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing information on prioritized factors that must be considered in an appropriate order by quantity surveying firms to survive economic contraction.

The purpose of this study is to examine, review and analyse the current literature on building and construction quality and determine the related themes and gaps.

A systematic review approach was adopted on the building quality literature, and keywords such as “construction” or “building”; “defect” and “quality” or “rework” were searched through the Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. A number of articles were found and filtered by title, abstract and keyword relevancy. Further articles were cross-referenced from these and again filtered by title, abstract and keyword relevancy. The time period for the search was 2000–2020. A total of 97 articles were found and analysed on the topic.

A number of recurring themes were found throughout the literature. They are safety, occupier satisfaction, cost, time, licensing, culture, training, software and building quality frameworks, classifications and recommendations. These themes were linked to display relationships between them from the literature. Based on the project lifecycle stages, an amalgamated classification system was developed and is presented here. The gaps in the current literature have been analysed and reported on.

A comprehensive descriptive, thematic and gap analysis was conducted on the available literature of building and construction quality. The emerging themes were discovered, their relationships were demonstrated and the research gaps were identified. A new classification system positioned in the project lifecycle stages is presented.