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The paper's aim is to establish the relationships between the formalisation of construction firms on the level of coordination and effectiveness of refurbishment projects.

The approach takes the form of a literature review of published journals and textbooks, a postal questionnaire survey with managing directors, project managers and contract managers. About 94 construction companies were selected for the postal questionnaire survey. In total, 54 (57 percent) of returned questionnaires were considered to be useful for statistical analysis.

Highly formalised construction firms require higher level of coordination than lowly formalised construction firms. In highly formalised construction firms, the participants managing refurbishment projects tend to circumvent formalisation by having more informal interactions, which contradicts the needs of the firms. The effectiveness of highly formalised construction firms is not significantly better than lowly formalised construction firms.

The study is limited to medium and large refurbishment projects, with contract value above £500,000.

The paper highlights the need to reduce formalisation in managing refurbishment projects. Large construction firms, which tend to be highly formalised should set up autonomous refurbishment division to manage refurbishment projects.

The paper shows that the formalisation of the organizational structure of construction firms affects the level of coordination of refurbishment projects.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between political connections and the over-indebtedness of firms in the construction industry. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms with monitoring intent on this relationship.

This study uses the data from China’s listed construction firms for the years 2010–2019 to run the fixed-effect regression. This study constructs the optimal capital structure mathematical model by following the trade-off approach.

The research results show that most of China’s listed construction firms are surprisingly over-indebted in the long run. This study affirms that political connections positively impact the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms. However, corporate governance can alleviate the impact of political connections on the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms.

There were limited studies to discuss the relationship between political connections and the over-indebtedness of construction firms, and no particular attention has been given to the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the relationship between political connections and over-indebtedness. Moreover, in calculating the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms, this study considers the financial characteristics of China’s construction firms when building the mathematical model of optimal capital structure, which makes the calculation results of over-indebtedness closer to reality.

The interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become burgeoning in the construction industry as firms are under constant pressure from socially conscious stakeholders to demonstrate their efforts to address various CSR issues. This study aims to unveil the key practices and impact factors (KPIFs) of CSR implementation in construction firms and the interrelationships among different key impact factors toward attaining CSR practices.

Mobilizing the integrated institutional, stakeholder and self-determination theories, a theoretical framework was first developed to elaborate the potential inter-relationships among the key impact factors toward CSR implementation. Data were collected from extra-grade contractors through an online questionnaire survey and was then analyzed by the partial least square structural equation modeling method.

The results show that construction firms' CSR practices could be classified into eight distinct key dimensions, e.g. shareholders' interests, government commitment and environment preservation. It is found that three groups of key impact factors – external institutional factors (especially coercive-normative factors), intrinsic factors (especially strategic business direction and organizational culture) and identified factors (i.e. the perceived importance of CSR practices) – have statistically significant positive impacts on most key dimensions of CSR practices.

The research findings have implications for top management to better understand CSR implementation, thereby helping them secure legitimacy to survive and advance in the competitive construction businesses.

The findings contribute to the theoretical body of knowledge in CSR by modeling and empirically demonstrating the influence mechanism of CSR implementation in construction within an integrated model.

The Government's role in industrial innovation has always been conventionally viewed as a regulator rather than a marketer of industrial progress. By breaking out of the box, this study positioned the Government as a marketer of innovation and construction enterprises as “consumers” of innovation products. The marketing mix concept of 4Ps is applied in this study to tailor marketing strategies for Governments, who aim to stimulate a higher level of innovation performance in the construction industry. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey of 97 construction enterprises in Germany is conducted to examine the innovation performance, strategies and resource utilisation of construction firms.

The findings indicate that there is no one-size-fits-all national marketing strategy in promoting construction innovation. The Government is required to classify marketing strategies according to firm sizes and enterprises’ needs in relation to their national innovation environment to maximise their innovation potential.

To illustrate this, marketing strategies according to firm sizes for the Government to stimulate higher innovation performance of German construction enterprises are proposed.

The main recommendation is for the Government to intensify inter-firm co-operation by employing national institutions as the key promoter in establishing and operating industry-led focus groups and world-class research centres.

Acknowledging the role of Government as more than an enabler of construction innovation is required in today's knowledge economy. This study proposes that it may be time for Governments to review their conventional role and adopt a more proactive stance in promoting innovation in the manner that counts to construction enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-term performance of construction sector initial public offers (IPO) made in India during 2006–2015. The study aims to compare the performance of the construction sector IPOs with the non-construction sector IPOs and finds the determinants of long-term performance of construction sector IPO with a time horizon of three years. The study also attempts to find out, if the long-term IPO underpricing that has been discussed in the literature, really exists or it is a myth.

The study uses data of IPOs listed on National stock exchange during 2006–2015. In total, 281 IPOs are considered for the study, among which 44 are construction sector IPOs. IPOs anniversary performance of three successive years is calculated from the date of listing, and a random effect panel regression model with clustered robust estimates using the maximum likelihood method is performed to find out the determinants of IPO performance. The data are also tested for multicollinearity, stationarity and heteroscedasticity to ensure the robustness of results.

The results show that in the long-run construction sector IPOs outperform the non-construction sector IPOs, though the performance is below average when compared to market returns. The IPO underpricing is a myth, and IPO underperformance is a reality in India. The performance of construction sector IPOs is driven positively by market return, size of the firm and negatively by liquidity of the firm.

The paper is the first attempt to analyze the performance of construction sector IPOs, and compare it with non-construction sector IPOs. The study uses a random effect panel regression model with robust estimates using the maximum likelihood method to ensure the robustness of results. This is the first time the performance of IPOs is studied with a panel data approach.

Recruitment and selection in the construction industry is ad hoc – the search for workers to match immediate employment needs is unsystematic, usually conducted in a short‐termist manner, and often contributes to, rather than overcomes, persistent recruitment difficulties and skill shortages. The purpose of this paper is to explore the recruitment context and selection practice in the Scottish construction sector, and proposes a model of the selection decision process which may provide an explanation for this apparently unsystematic approach.

A survey based on a sample from the 1998 Scottish Chambers of Commerce Business Survey database was used to examine the pattern of recruitment, contextual influences on recruitment, the qualities sought by employers, and the extent of use of various recruitment and selection methods. Further qualitative data was gathered from a subset of construction and surveyors firms to explore the nature of selection processes.

The data highlighted the lack of rigour in recruitment and selection and the presence of formalised procedures only in the larger firms. Qualitative evidence shows an emphasis on the visual assessment of work, the importance of site managers in making decisions, and the presence of local industry networks.

The survey could provide only an indicative description of practice amongst Scottish firms and larger scale accounts of practice would be useful. Nevertheless, the contribution of the qualitative research was to explore the dynamics of selection for a rarely studied work context.

Construction firms are found to share many of the constraints in adopting formal HRM practices already identified in small firms in unpredictable environments.

The complex interactions between firm‐ and industry‐specific factors within a national context and their impacts on innovation often hinder construction enterprises' efforts in optimising their innovation performance. The purpose of this paper is to employ the Cobb‐Douglas empirical production model to develop an innovation production function that illustrates the input and output factors relating to the innovation performance of construction firms.

Applying these factors to a dataset comprising economic and innovation statistics over 20 years for Germany and Singapore, regression analyses were conducted to investigate the critical resources that contribute to the innovation performance of German and Singaporean construction firms.

The findings indicated that the maturity of the innovation landscape in Germany cultivates the strength of German construction firms in developing unique firm‐specific resources that pushes their competitiveness edge. In Singapore, construction firms' dependence on the nation's basic science and technology research leads to weak firm dynamics and innovation capabilities.

It is recommended that in Singapore, the government should focus on the strength of their relationships with construction enterprises to aid the development of construction firms' R&D capabilities. The primary recommendation for both German and Singapore construction firms is to develop a system of knowledge documentation and distribution that facilitates systematically reapplications of know‐how, enabling construction firms to develop sustainable competitiveness through unique knowledge assets.

Building information modeling (BIM) is recognized as a major innovation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Understanding the factors that influence the AEC’s adoption of BIM will benefit the research and practice of BIM. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study provides empirical evidence for the accumulated knowledge of BIM adoption by examining the context of Chinese construction industry. Based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework in the innovation diffusion literature, the authors develop a research model that integrates the critical success factors related to the technology of BIM, the construction company and the environment in Chinese construction industry. The authors collected two different data sets from engineering consulting firms and construction firms in China, and conducted rigorous analyses using a sophisticated statistical approach.

The authors found that the relative advantage of BIM was a major factor that enabled BIM adoption, while the complexity of BIM was an inhibiter. In addition, management support was also a significant antecedent of BIM adoption. However, organizational readiness was significant for engineering consulting firms but not for construction firms. Surprisingly, the authors did not find consistent significant impacts of any environmental factors. Last, younger firms were more likely to adopt BIM.

One of the first to apply the TOE framework to integrate three groups of factors that may explain BIM adoption in China. Such a comprehensive framework provides a much broader perspective of BIM adoption to evaluate the impacts of different antecedent factors. The authors conducted an empirical study based on survey data collected from two different types of companies, i.e., engineering consulting firms and construction firms, representing the two parties in the principal-agent relationship of a construction project. One of the first to apply a sophisticated statistical approach, i.e., partial least squares, to analyze the data in the BIM literature.

A number of previous studies have investigated international construction project risks and have proposed risk mitigation measures without examining their interdependence. The purpose of the current study is to identify the influence of various risk mitigation measures on macro-level risk factors in the international marketplace.

The authors initially identified 26 risk variables and nine risk mitigation measures through a literature review, which were then verified for their pertinence to international projects by three experts. Subsequently, 105 questionnaire survey responses were collected and analysed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling to test the interrelations between the risk variables and mitigation measures.

The findings suggest that joint ventures with local partners is emerged as the most critical risk mitigation measure that influences the international projects, which are exposed to political, project and firm-specific risk factors. Further, it is worth noting that among the recognised risk mitigation measures in international projects, offering more local employment is the least critical mitigation measure in the international projects.

The findings of this study are based on the macro-risk factors encountered by Indian construction firms in international projects, mostly from specific Asian and African regions. Thus, the opinions of construction firms from the developed countries might be different.

The main contribution of this study to existing knowledge is empirical evidence of the interrelationships between risk mitigation measures and risk factors that are portrayed as latent variables of different manifest risk variables. The generated model can assist construction firms in emphasising several risk mitigation methods, in order to reduce risk and enhance performance in international construction projects.

COVID-19 came as a surprise to the global economy and devastated many sectors worldwide, including the construction sector. Small construction firms are believed to be an engine of growth in many developing countries, including Ghana; thus, their survival cannot be trivialized. This study explored the impact of the COVID-19 on the businesses of the small confirms in Ghana.

A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study. Open-ended interview questions were distributed via email to 45 small construction firms (D3K3 and D4K4) purposefully selected. Thematic contents analysis was used to analyze 30 interview questions received.

This study has revealed that the COVID-19 has severely affected small construction firms in Ghana. Small construction firms are struggling in their finances; their cash flow/payments for work done are severely affected; they cannot secure contracts and management site efficiently. Their worker's productivity level has dwindled, which has subsequently escalated their project cost and completion time. These effects identified are significantly affecting the survival of these small construction firms.

The study included small construction operating in the Central, Western and Greater Accra regions of Ghana during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the findings may be applicable to construction sites outside these regions.

The implication is the COVID-19 pandemic hugely impacts the small construction firm's business operations. Therefore, they must be mindful of the new norm (COVID-19) and institute strategies to help them overcome the challenges and sustain their businesses.

The study gives insight into the effects of the COVID-19 on the businesses of small construction firms in Ghana and proposes strategies that they must implement to overcome their challenges and sustain their businesses.