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Industry 5.0 provides significant social, environmental and economic benefits over previous industrial revolutions. However, research in the field of industry 5.0 is still at a very nascent stage. Little is known about research trends in the field and its applications in specific sectors as construction which have relatively low sustainability index. Hence, this study aims to explore research trends in industry 5.0 and its applications in the construction industry.

The study adopted a bibliometric analysis with the use of the vosviewer. The main search words used in the study were “Industry 5.0”, “Society 5.0” AND “Fifth Industrial Revolution”. Initial extracted papers with these keywords were 1036. After refining based on language, document type, key words and timeframe, a total of 188 papers were found suitable for the analysis.

The most impactful research on Industry 5.0 to date was from the United States, Australia and Sweden while the journal sustainability was found to be the highest document source on Industry 5.0. The application areas of industry 5.0 in the construction industry include health and safety, collaborative working, waste management, measurement of environmental features (indoor air quality, atmospheric pressure, noise, humidity and temperature) and forecasting of environmental, social or financial outcomes.

The study used review based papers which form the bulk of the existing research on industry 5.0. This limits understanding of the practical applications, benefits and challenges associated with the use of industry 5.0.

This work contributes to the theory and practice of industry 5.0 by providing baseline data for future research directions on industry 5.0. The work specifically highlights the application areas of industry 5.0 in the construction industry and also indicates the need for questionnaire, interviews or case study based research to enhance understanding of the practical applications of industry 5.0.

This study aims to determine barriers to innovation and to develop a quantitative model for the barrier to innovation in Vietnamese construction organizations of different sizes.

A literature review and discussions with experienced practitioners were implemented to determine barriers to innovation in construction organizations. The rank-based non-parametric test analyzed collected data from a questionnaire survey to examine if there were significant differences between the three groups of organizations, including small, medium and large construction organizations. The fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique was employed to develop barrier indexes (BIs) for organizations of different sizes in Vietnam.

The findings showed 17 barriers to innovation which were categorized into four groups, including organizational, human resources, economic and market barriers. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences regarding barriers to innovation between small, medium and large construction organizations in Vietnam. The post hoc test highlighted barriers to innovation differently separated into two groups: SMEs and large construction organizations. The FSE analysis integrated the identified barriers into the comprehensive BIs for SMEs and large construction organizations. The FSE analysis illustrated that the organizational barrier is the most critical barrier for SMEs. On the other hand, the market barrier received the most significant attention in large construction organizations.

This research is one of the first integrated barriers to innovation into a comprehensive formulation. The indexes provide the decision-makers with a practical and reliable tool to evaluate barriers to innovation in construction organizations of different sizes.

The present study aims to identify significant barriers to adopting prefabricated construction (PFC) in developing economies using a study in Sri Lanka and develop an integrated strategy framework to mitigate and overcome the obstacles.

The research process included a comprehensive literature review, a pilot study, a questionnaire survey for data collection, statistical analysis and a qualitative content analysis.

Ranking method revealed that all 23 barriers were significant. Top significant barriers include challenges in prefabricated component transportation, high capital investment costs and lack of awareness of the benefits of PFC among owners/developers. Factor analysis clustered six barrier categories (BCs) that fit the barrier factors, explaining 71.22% of the cumulative variance. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation revealed that all BCs significantly influence PFC adoption in Sri Lanka. Finally, the proposed mitigation strategies were mapped with barriers to complete the integrated framework.

The study outcomes are relevant to construction industry stakeholders of Sri Lanka, who are keen to enhance construction efficiencies. The implications can also benefit construction industry stakeholders and policymakers to formulate policies and regulations and identify mitigation solutions.

The study provides deeper insights into the challenges to adopting prefabrication in South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the integrated framework is a novel contribution that can be used to derive actions to mitigate barriers in developing economies.

This research aims to develop an approach to assess the reliability of integrated construction supply chains via an integrated model of building information modelling (BIM) and the lean supply chain (LSC). It reflects the synergistic workflow between BIM and LSC as a novel approach to improve the reliability of construction projects.

This research evaluates the reliability of the BIM-LSC approach through a combination of entropy theory, set pair analysis (SPA), and Markov chains (EESM). An exploratory survey was conducted to collect data from 316 industry professionals experienced in BIM and LSC. Subsequently, multiple cycles of calculations were performed with indirect data inputs. Finally, a reliability evaluation index is established for the BIM-LSC approach and potential applications are identified.

The results show that the EESM model of BIM-LSC developed in this study can handle not only supply chain reliability evaluation at a given state but also the prediction of reliability in supply chain state transitions due to changing project conditions. This is particularly relevant to the current environment of the construction project, which is characterised by an increasing level of complexity in terms of labour, technology, and resource interactions.

Future research could consider the accuracy and validity of the proposed model in real-life scenarios with by considering both quantitative and qualitative data across the entire lifecycle of projects.

The research offers a model to evaluate the reliability of the BIM-LSC approach. The accuracy of BIM supply chain reliability analysis and prediction in an uncertain environment is improved.

The BIM-LSC reliability evaluation and prediction presented in this study provides a theoretical foundation to enhance understanding of the BIM-LSC in the construction project context.

This chapter discusses the application of fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) modelling to construction management (CM) challenges and problems. It focuses on the critical issue of managing the complexity and uncertainty inherent in CM by providing a new intelligent layer that enhances classical approaches to construction modelling and management. It investigates how the myriad types of internal and external factors affecting the feasibility and performance of construction projects can be modelled using a fuzzy hybrid method that explores the complex relationships among many contributing factors and assesses and evaluates their impacts on past and future projects. This chapter proposes a hybrid modelling approach in the traditional context of cost, schedule and risk management and describes how augmenting and enhancing existing state-of-the-art tools and processes in CM can assist construction managers. This chapter provides a background on the theory of FCMs, presents foundational and current research, and explains how to apply this approach in the CM domain. This chapter also provides a detailed description of how to develop, modify and employ interactive models to specific CM challenges and problems. It includes a customisable, interactive base model and demonstrates how the model has been applied to specific CM events and issues. Examples are presented that highlight the interplay between project-specific goals and characteristics and the way these impact the interrelated and often opposing triad of cost, schedule and risk. The presented examples and practical applications make this state-of-the-art approach useful to both academic and industry practitioners.

This study explores the relationships among sustainability implementation barriers (resource, managerial and regulatory barriers), sustainability practices (sustainable construction materials, sustainable construction design, modern construction methods and environmental provisions and reporting) and sustainability performance (environmental, economic and social) in hill road construction (HRC).

Primary data were collected from the 313 HRC practitioners with the help of a questionnaire, and research hypotheses were tested employing structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal a mixed effect of sustainability implementation barriers. Resource (managerial) barriers are negatively related to all practices except environmental provisions and reporting (sustainable construction materials), while regulatory barriers only negatively impact modern construction methods. On the other hand, all sustainability practices positively impact environmental performance, whereas economic (social) performance is positively influenced by all practices, except environmental provisions and reporting (modern construction methods), and positively affects economic performance.

In order to transform HRC toward sustainability, the barriers to sustainability implementation, sustainability practices and performance need to be understood by practitioners; however, the relationships have not previously been empirically assessed in extant literature. Besides, past research appears to be predominantly focused on the environmental aspect, thereby neglecting economic and social aspects. This study is a modest attempt to bridge these research gaps.

Extreme hot environments are prevalent in many occupational settings, and facilities management workers are no exception. Wearing suitable cooling garment is a useful means to alleviate heat strain and improving performance at heat exposure. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness and applicability of the cooling vest across four selected fields (i.e. construction, outdoor cleaning and horticulture, kitchen work and work involved manual handling at the airport) and identify the shortcomings of the cooling vest used by the participating workers.

This study adopted a two-phase design: a quantitative questionnaire survey followed by qualitative in-depth interviews.

A remarkable physical strain alleviation (PSA) of 21.1 per cent (14.8 per cent in construction, 18.8 per cent in horticulture and cleaning, 27.4 per cent in kitchen and catering and 26.5 per cent in airport apron service) is achieved by the use of cooling vest in four industries. Despite the success of PSA, several shortcomings of the cooling vest were identified: easily stained color, heavy weight, short cooling time, inflexibility that presents a hazard around moving equipment, lack of industry-specific design, nondurable and thick fabric with poor permeability.

The findings of the current study do not only confirm the effectiveness of the cooling vest in alleviating heat strain and physical strain but also identify the major shortcomings upon which further improvements can be made.

The maritime freight transportation industry has played an important role in the Korean economy. The Korean maritime freight transportation industry is faced with a period of transforming it competitively and efficiently in this global age. This paper, therefore, aims to identify the impact of the maritime freight transportation industry in the Korean national economy. Hence, this paper provides policy-makers with accessible and reliable information regarding the role of the Korean maritime freight transportation industry. This study employs input-output (I-O) analysis to examine the role of the maritime freight transportation industry in the national economy for the period 1995-2003, with specific application to Korea. This study pays particular attention to the maritime freight transportation industry by taking the industry as exogenous variable and then investigates its economic impacts. We identify inter-industry linkage effects in 20 sectors, production-inducing effects, added value-inducing effects, and supply-shortage effects of the maritime freight transportation industry.

This paper aims to measure the severity, frequency and importance of the factors causing delays in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) construction industry following the Covid-19 pandemic onset. The study also measures the likelihood of the effects caused by these delays.

A mixed approach of both qualitative and quantitative. Literature review was conducted to extract 40 factors of delays and 10 effects of delays. A survey was then administered to construction professionals in the UAE to collect the perceptions on the severity and frequency of factors of the causes of delays using a Likert Scale of 1–5 where 1 represented very low and 5 represented very high. Similarly, the respondents were also asked to rate the likelihood of the occurrence of the effects of the delays based on a Likert scale of 1–5 as well. Furthermore, Spearman’s rank correlation was also conducted to compute the level of agreement between the different parties; owner, consultants and contractors.

The results revealed that the top five factors of delays include: award the project for the lowest bidder, delay in progress payment, change orders by the owner, poor subcontractor performance and inadequate planning and scheduling by the contractor. The findings of this study emphasize the financial challenges and economic crisis brought upon the construction industry due to the pandemic. Furthermore, the pandemic also shifted the perceptions of construction professionals, who are now more aware of the delays caused by awarding the project to the lowest bidder who would not have the required qualifications to conduct efficient planning and scheduling that are relevant in the case of extraordinary events such as Covid-19. Moreover, a high level of agreement between the consultants and contractors was observed, with a Spearman’s rank correlation of 0.804. Additionally, the most likely effects of delays concluded from this study were time overrun/extension and poor quality of work.

Literature review is very rich in the field of construction projects delays. However, there is very limited research on the impact of Covid-19 in the context of construction projects delays, and insights from construction professionals regarding this matter are particularly lacking in literature. Therefore, this paper bridges the gap in literature by providing perceptions of construction professionals on the impact of Covid-19 on the factors causing delays in the UAE construction industry. The findings of this research are expected to be an invaluable resource for future to help the construction industry heal faster when encountering similar epidemics or extraordinary events.