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Clients' financial status, characteristics, management competency and construction experience can have significant effects upon the attainment of project success. A survey was conducted to gauge whether consultants and contractors felt that 20 client related attributes uncovered from the literature have influence on the project outcome. Data were collected via a mailed questionnaire. Results show that all the 20 client related attributes are important and contribute to project success. A multiple linear regression model was constructed to predict a client's contribution to project success. Five predictive attributes were identified: ‘client sets down project objectives clearly’, ‘client is credit worthy’, ‘client does not contribute to project complexity’, ‘client is not litigious’, and ‘client trusts project team members’. This model provides consultants and contractors with a tool to evaluate their clients. It is recommended that clients focus on the more important attributes identified in this study, to ensure project success.

This study aims to investigate clients' attributes, their key decision variables and causal relationships between the decision variables. In addition, the purpose of the study is to map-out from these analyses, the attributes of project clients that motivate contractors' bid decision.

A total of 50 responses were obtained from a questionnaire survey. 50% of participants are contractors. 44% are claims consultants, whilst 6% are manufacturers and clients. Beyond measures of central tendencies, analysis focussed on causal relationships by way of correlation, analysis of variance and reductionism.

All 20 factors considered have significant correlations with at least one other factor. Findings also show the factors can be clustered into six: reputation, financial strength, relationship with the bidder, organisational attributes, history with project attributes and project organisation.

Evidence suggests stakeholders have often struggled to consider the many decision factors reported in normative literature, numbering hundreds. By clustering the factors into sub-themes, bid decisioning has been made more efficient. The study also explains how client attributes could determine project success and contractor participation. Different stakeholders can use findings of this study for training and further studies.

Previous studies have considered bid decisioning indexically – factors were long, analyses were largely inconclusive, and causal relationships are orthogonal. Findings in this study have shown depth: 20 originating client-specific factors were clustered into six sub-themes, and correlations were established. The methodology used for the study is confirmatory and conclusive.

With Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the self-regulation of the auditing profession was replaced with standard setting and oversight by the government. The authors focus on the audit fees literature to examine how this change impacted research trends over time and shaped different aspects of audits.

The authors utilized bibliometric and content analysis to identify research themes pre- and post-SOX.

The change in regulation contributed to an increased focus on clients and continued interest in engagement characteristics as added requirements emphasized the client's governance structure, the auditor's tenure and the type of services provided.

The prominent issue that emerged is how deficiencies in the audit processes and in the client's internal controls are translated into audit fees. The authors discuss regulatory initiatives pursued in other jurisdictions, including mandatory rotation of firms, joint audits and further limitations on non-audit services, as intended and unintended consequences of these requirements warrant further examination.

Despite the long-term interest of medical sociologists in persons’ expectations of care, there is little known about older persons’ expectations of home care. Because satisfaction with home care is important to older persons, the construct of home-care satisfaction (H-CS) is an important concern of practitioners and researchers. Influenced by theories of expectations and satisfaction, researchers have characterized expectations of home care as pre-existing variables in relation to which persons appraise satisfaction. Although theorists have emphasized the importance of obtaining data about expectations when measuring satisfaction, there are few data about expectations of home care. This narrative review points out the gaps between the current research and related theories. The frameworks and methods of studies designed to measure HC-S are reviewed with particular attention to expectations. The need to add to the knowledge base about expectations (and thereby to increase the validity of the HC-S construct) is emphasized. Definitions and categories of expectations from various disciplines are presented as untapped realms for exploring expectancies and expectations in descriptive studies. An interface between the principle of individual differences and the parameter of personal importance of home-care issues is highlighted as a framework for descriptive research.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the body of knowledge on healthcare facilities management (FM) by investigating the risks associated with outsourcing of FM services in hospitals.

The paper relied on two strands of methodology common with pragmatic research. Questionnaire survey (QS) used data from 208 respondents representing ten hospitals while three out of the ten hospitals involved in the QS were selected based on their willingness to enter the case study (CS) interview. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics for QS and using narrative techniques by discussing themes, sub-themes for the CS.

Findings established 24 out of the 35 risk factors as critical, four factors as somehow critical, and five factors as not critical. Besides, nine risk factors were found to be significantly loaded on the five risk categories. The rank analysis also revealed that the top five critical risk factors are: inexperience and lack of requisite skills; possibility of fraud by vendor; financial failure of chosen vendor; vendor opportunism; and fall in morale of employees.

The study provides an unambiguous contribution to exiting body of knowledge on outsourcing risks as it relates to healthcare FM. It reinforces the theory that risks exist in any form of relationship but developed a distinct body of factors associated with outsourcing of FM services particularly from the context of Nigeria’s public healthcare sector.

From 2006 onwards very large Belgian nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are legally required to appoint an external auditor. In this context we investigate whether auditor choice in favor of a sector expert, being a higher quality auditor, is associated with NPOs’ expectations regarding several auditor attributes. We find that NPOs are more likely to choose a sector expert if they attach higher importance to an auditor’s client focus and relationship with management. NPOs are less likely to choose a sector expert if they care more about the practical execution of the audit. We provide recommendations for increasing the appeal of sector expertise as valuable auditor attribute. The resulting quality increase of NPOs’ financial statements and audit reports could benefit various stakeholders.

The aim of this paper is to understand the antecedents and effects of performance attribution challenges arising in the provision of business-to-business (B2B) services in supply chains.

The study draws on three in-depth case studies of logistics service providers (LSPs) offering supply chain solutions to their clients in Sweden. The analysis of performance attribution challenges and their antecedents and effects is based on 38 semi-structured interviews and review of 43 documents, including contracts and performance monitoring records.

Three key antecedents of performance attribution challenges are stressed. Two of these, the inseparability and contestability of service inputs, are closely related to the notion of service co-production. The third antecedent is the limited provider capability in performance data collection and analysis. Performance attribution challenges may result in provider aversion to performance-related risk and have a harmful effect on client relationships, for example, in terms of provider perceptions of opportunism and unfair allocation of gains. These effects can be mitigated through contracting, interventions in performance measurement system design and deployment of relational mechanisms.

The paper extends the service management literature that emphasises on service co-production by suggesting that inputs of the client firm and its supply chain partners may not only vary in quality but also can be inseparable from provider inputs and highly contestable. It also empirically demonstrates how performance attribution challenges and their antecedents and effects manifest themselves in B2B service provision, as opposed to supply chain settings where the main user of logistics services is the consumer.

LSP managers should contract for performance based on high-quality and incontestable external inputs they rely upon. Contractual specifications (performance indicators and related incentives) should explicate and consider the inputs required by clients and their supply chain partners to minimise their contestability.

The study proposes an empirically based framework of the antecedents and effects of performance attribution challenges, an issue that has received scant attention in logistics outsourcing research and the business services literature more broadly.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss assessment of the satisfaction levels of different members of a construction project team as a basis for meeting the needs of the client.

An integrated framework is proposed that enables a collaboration of construction clients and project participants based on the recognition of the satisfaction requirements of every participant represented in the project team. The framework is developed to prioritise the satisfaction attributes of flexible number of construction clients and project participants, and enables the integration of these participants and their satisfaction attributes using mathematical and engineering techniques.

The framework can be applied at the different phases of the project life cycle. In addition, the satisfaction levels of construction clients and the project participants can be enhanced by focussing on the values of their satisfaction attributes and improving the integration of the project team.

The paper shows that a collaboration of construction clients and project participants based on the recognition and acknowledgement of each participant and their requirements is essential to improving project satisfaction in the construction sector.

The framework captures and analyzes the level of integrated project team satisfaction. The outcome of the study will improve understanding the satisfaction requirements of every client and participant represented in a given construction project team.

The paper aims to analyse audit service quality attributes that were perceived to be important in compulsory audit tendering (CAT) in local councils in New South Wales (NSW). It focuses principally on whether CAT leads to an impairment of auditor independence and audit quality.

A questionnaire survey was conducted of 235 NSW local council finance professionals and 35 local council internal auditors in May 2006.

The most important attributes in evaluating audit service quality were industry expertise, audit firm experience with a council, technical competence, independence, ethical standards and due care. The least important attributes were scepticism, freshness of perspective, audit firm size, and non‐audit services. There is considerable consistency in the findings with those in non‐CAT contexts.

The paper is subject to the general limitations of the survey questionnaire method. A further limitation is that audit quality was assessed using perceptions of audit service quality by preparers of local council financial statements, rather than by users of those statements.

Audit firms will be better able to understand the audit service quality attributes valued by local council clients, to differentiate their promotional and service‐provision strategies, improve their audit quality, and better satisfy local council clients. Concerns that CAT may impair audit independence and audit quality do not appear to be founded.

Because the results are generally consistent with findings in non‐CAT contexts, there can be more confidence in CAT as a regulatory form of audit procurement.

Previous studies have proposed that correctly managing stakeholders with certain attributes can benefit project management; however, robust theoretical elaborations and empirical investigations of this topic have been lacking. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of two stakeholder attributes – contractor-perceived contractor salience and contractor project position – on the criticality of five typical contractor-related risks: risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract.

Questionnaire data were collected from 118 Chinese contractor managers. Regression models were run in Mplus 7.11 to test the hypotheses.

The data show that higher contractor-perceived contractor salience and a more supportive contractor project position were both related to lower criticality of contractor-related risks, including risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract. Contractor salience also mediated the negative relationship between a supportive contractor project position and the criticality of contractor-related risks.

The authors’ research design is cross-sectional and thus cannot establish causation in the relationships among the studied variables. The single item measure of contractor project position was used for the first time in the present study; thus, its reliability and validity still await more empirical examinations.

The findings advance the understanding of the value of stakeholder management in projects by specifying that prioritizing stakeholders' claims and securing their support for the project reduce the criticality of stakeholder-related risks. By providing empirical evidence from the construction context, the findings also add to knowledge on the instrumental power of stakeholder management in enhancing project risk management performance.