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The greatest challenge facing construction executives is how to manage their intellectual capital. The business environment has now entered a knowledge era, where knowledge has become power and learning rapidly and competently has become a pre‐eminent strategy for success. Thus, knowledge is rapidly becoming more important to organizations than financial resources, market positions, technology and other tangible assets. However, the management of intellectual capital is still an under‐charted territory within construction organizations. Managing know‐how, know‐what, know‐why is unlike managing finances or construction plant, yet intellectual

Waste has been a major challenge in the construction industry. Lean concepts have been adopted in developed nations to overcome waste. However, developing countries are still faced with the challenge due to a lack of strategies for effective lean knowledge by construction practitioners. The purpose of this research is to identify the strategies for lean knowledge in the future Nigerian construction industry.

This was achieved through a case study of a Nigerian university. Assignments and questionnaires were the two instruments used for data collection in the study. Content analysis was adopted to analyse the data obtained from the assignments, while statistical tools such as correlation and ANOVA analysis were used to analyse the questionnaire data.

The findings of the study showed that the introduction of lean theory into students’ academic curriculum, lean practical classes and collaboration between universities, industry and lean construction institutes are some of the critical strategies for adequate lean knowledge in the future Nigerian construction industry.

The study is case-based and focused on a single university. The study did not also put clients’ level of lean knowledge as well as future required acquaintance into consideration.

This study is important as it will enable students to have an adequate understanding of the concept of lean construction right from a higher institution level. This study will enable students to put the knowledge into practice in the construction industry, hence eliminating waste or NVAAs in future construction projects.

The findings of the study could enhance concerted efforts by universities, lean construction institutes and the construction industry towards an intentional and systematic delivery of lean knowledge that will reduce waste in future Nigerian construction projects. Further studies should be carried out to identify the success factors required by clients for effective lean knowledge in construction projects.

This paper aims to investigate the potential challenges that hinder the effective transfer and sharing of tacit knowledge (knowledge communication [KC]) within a construction supply chain (CSC).

This study identifies six challenges (through literature review) with 15 positive correlations between them. Quantitative methodology is used to validate those challenges and correlations between challenges. First, data are collected through semi-structured e-survey questionnaire. Afterwards, a Frequency and Kruskal–Wallis H test is run for initial validation of identified challenges. A correlation analysis is used to highlight the taxonomic relations between those challenges. Finally, the study establishes the rank order of the first and following challenges.

This study highlights that traditional ways of working with construction organisations are the predominant challenge that hinders effective transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge. The cause of challenges is the fragmented nature of CSC. Also, it brings out the correlation between those challenges. The study draws the conclusion and recommendation to implement KC within a CSC.

The study highlights the challenges that hinder KC in a construction process of a CSC. It establishes that the fragmented nature of the construction sector is not the first challenge that hinders implementation of transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge but somewhat traditional organisation structures and working processes. This is the first paper that investigates and tests the challenges in four dimensions and establishes the rank order of challenges with crucial distinction in a KC approach within a CSC.

Tacit knowledge, which is developed through experience, is used by Thai construction managers to perform their tasks and deliver project performance. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the utilization of tacit knowledge in executing construction projects.

The study is qualitative in nature and carried out through a case study approach. Empirical evidence was collected from three construction companies, each handling projects of a diverse nature of project characteristics and knowledge management styles.

The main findings particularly arise from the following four factors that were observed from on‐site observations of work practice and interviews: flexible and adaptable thinking due to dynamic products and processes in the construction project; problem‐solving and heuristics that facilitate a novelistic, re‐combination of knowledge; knowledge networks amongst individuals that support and transfer non‐codified knowledge; and management conditions conducive to knowledge creation. These four factors are inherently embedded in Thai construction management practices for creativity and competitiveness.

The study is an examination of the contributions actually made by each aspect of a knowledge‐management oriented project, and identification of the lessons learned therein and new improved practices. These are thereafter captured and incorporated into the next learning cycle in order to facilitate a steady evolution for best practices.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of tacit knowledge in construction and to underline the significant contribution of tacit knowledge towards the organisational performance.

Includes a review of literature on principal insights of dominant views on knowledge and organisational resources to highlight the strategic nature of tacit knowledge. Further, intrinsic characteristics of the construction industry are discussed to underline the people factor and the role of the tacit knowledge.

Valuable human and knowledge resources will be wasted unless organisations make better use of these prime resources. Tacit knowledge in particular is still considered to be relatively unexplored and proper understanding and management of this resource are of immense importance for better organisational performance. In this context, this paper reveals the labour and knowledge intensive nature of the construction industry and highlights the importance and the significant role of people factor and tacit knowledge in construction.

Owing to paucity of literature and inadequate empirical research done, this paper provides the basis for more empirical research on finding importance of tacit knowledge towards organisational performance in the construction industry.

Efficient project execution is a key business objective in many domains and particularly so for capital projects in the construction industry. Each construction project is unique in terms of how specialist professionals manage knowledge. Construction projects generate a large body of knowledge for sharing and reuse within the construction organization and across projects. In addition, projects provide opportunities for new knowledge to emerge in a cross‐functional, team‐work context. There are many factors in the construction industry that can influence the execution of construction projects, both positively and negatively, and so it is increasingly important to anticipate risks and implement the best solutions. Therefore, the preparation of the project before execution is crucial for any construction firm. This paper sets out to improve project preparation for execution in large construction firms. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to look at ways by which construction projects are prepared, based on the empirical data collected from five case studies. It also seeks to provide and discuss a model of a knowledge management (KM) system aimed at improving the preparation of large construction projects.

The prerequisite for developing a KM solution in which project knowledge can be used to enable and improve project‐preparation processes is identifying the sources and nature of knowledge and its flow from a particular source to a specific destination. In order to understand the source flow of project knowledge, a qualitative case study approach was undertaken whereby various actors, knowledge retention practices, access and retrieval of knowledge, and issues in sharing knowledge were identified and analyzed. Case study research is one of the most widely used research designs in qualitative research. The methodology looks at five large construction projects, but not typical projects, which nonetheless provide useful insights for developing KM solutions aimed at improving project preparation.

This paper discusses how to improve project preparation in construction projects with KM and presents a KM model aimed at improving project preparation.

Construction firms need to be aware of the advantages of KM initiatives and practices in project organizations. KM requires an organisation environment that allows workers to create, capture, share, and leverage knowledge to improve project preparation.

This paper presents a new framework for managing project knowledge needed for undertaking project preparation. The knowledge map and the content of the knowledge base may be changed to fit the organization to be applied.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a content analysis framework and from that derive a process model of knowledge construction in the context of virtual product user communities, organization sponsored online forums where product users collaboratively construct knowledge to solve their technical problems.

The study is based on a deductive and qualitative content analysis of discussion threads about solving technical problems selected from a series of virtual product user communities. Data are complemented with thematic analysis of interviews with forum members.

The research develops a content analysis framework for knowledge construction. It is based on a combination of existing codes derived from frameworks developed for computer-supported collaborative learning and new categories identified from the data. Analysis using this framework allows the authors to propose a knowledge construction process model showing how these elements are organized around a typical “trial and error” knowledge construction strategy.

The research makes suggestions about organizations’ management of knowledge activities in virtual product user communities, including moderators’ roles in facilitation.

The paper outlines a new framework for analysing knowledge activities where there is a low level of critical thinking and a model of knowledge construction by trial and error. The new framework and model can be applied in other similar contexts.

This paper aims to summarise a Doctor of Philosophy research study. The purpose is to provide a summary of the scope, literature review, main issues raised in the thesis, the application of a two phase action research methodology, key research findings and potential areas for future research.

The research investigates the role of knowledge management (KM) in supporting innovation and learning in the construction industry. The research is carried out in two phases. Phase 1 employs a grounded theory methodology to develop and map out the current state of knowledge‐related activities being undertaken in two leading Australian construction organisations. This is developed into a model that shows that the segregation between three crucial components – people, process and technology – of an organisation is required to successfully carry out construction work. Phase 2 utilises soft system methodology (SSM) as a KM tool to identify the gap between organisations' internal and external knowledge sources. This gap is significant as it restricts the pull of knowledge from external knowledge sources.

This investigation provides a model to achieve KM initiatives through adoption of SSM. This results in an improvement in the integration of people, process and technology within an organisation, an increase in the capacity of the organisation to pull external knowledge, and thereby improve its own internal knowledge bank. All these improvements help an organisation to transform itself into a learning organisation that can continually adapt and innovate.

KM research is relatively new in the construction industry. This research has significantly added to the existing body of knowledge in the domain of KM by effectively linking KM with innovation and learning. This provides a strong case for employing KM in order to make innovation a regular phenomenon within the construction industry and encouraging organisations to transform themselves into learning organisations.

This paper provides practitioners with an insight into how KM can be applied in project management (PM)‐oriented organisations. Also the research explores an identified gap between PM research and practice, and argues that industry needs to effectively work in collaboration with knowledge sources found in academia. The paper also demonstrates that SSM can be used to create artefacts of knowledge.

New generation of construction workers (NGCWs) who were born in the 1980s and later have gradually become the main workforce of Chinese construction industry. They may behave differently when dealing with knowledge-related activities due to divergent characteristics caused by generational discrepancy. To provide a theoretical foundation for construction companies and safety managers to improve safety management, this research explores the factors and paths impacting the NGCWs' ability to share their safety knowledge.

Based on literature review, main factors that influence the safety knowledge sharing of the NGCWs were identified. Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and Interpretive Structural Modeling were applied to identify the hierarchical and contextual relations among the factors influencing the safety knowledge sharing of the NGCWs.

The results showed that sharing atmosphere ranked first in centrality and had a high degree of influence and being influenced, indicating itself an extremely important influencing factor of safety knowledge sharing of NGCWs. Six root influencing factors were identified, including individual characteristics, work pressure, sharing platform, incentive mechanism, leadership support and safety management system.

The number of influencing factors of safety knowledge sharing of the NGCWs identified in this study is limited, and the data obtained by the expert scoring method is subjective. In future studies, the model should be further developed and validated by incorporating experts from different fields to improve its integrity and applicability.

The influencing factors identified in this paper can provide a basis for construction companies and safety managers to improve productivity and safety management by taking relevant measures to promote safety knowledge sharing. The research contributes to the understanding knowledge management in the context of the emerging market. It helps to answer the question of how the market can maintain the economic growth success through effective knowledge management.

This paper investigates the influencing factors of NGCWs' safety knowledge sharing from the perspective of intergenerational differences, and the 13 influencing factor index system established expands the scope of research on factors influencing safety knowledge sharing among construction workers and fills the gap in safety knowledge sharing research on young construction workers. Furthermore, this paper establishes a multi-layer recursive structure model to clarify the influence path of the influencing factors and contributes to the understanding of safety knowledge sharing mechanism.

Informal learning networks are critical to response to calls for practitioners to reskill and upskill in off-site construction projects. With the transition to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social media-enabled online knowledge communities play an increasingly important role in acquiring and disseminating off-site construction knowledge. Proximity has been identified as a key factor in facilitating interactive learning, yet which type of proximity is effective in promoting online and offline knowledge exchange remains unclear. This study takes a relational view to explore the proximity-related antecedents of online and offline learning networks in off-site construction projects, while also examining the subtle differences in the networks' structural patterns.

Five types of proximity (physical, organizational, social, cognitive and personal) between projects members are conceptualized in the theoretical model. Drawing on social foci theory and homophily theory, the research hypotheses are proposed. To test these hypotheses, empirical case studies were conducted on two off-site construction projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Valid relational data provided by 99 and 145 project members were collected using semi-structured interviews and sociometric questionnaires. Subsequently, multivariate exponential random graph models were developed.

The results show a discrepancy arise in the structural patterns between online and offline learning networks. Offline learning is found to be more strongly influenced by proximity factors than online learning. Specifically, physical, organizational and social proximity are found to be significant predictors of offline knowledge exchange. Cognitive proximity has a negative relationship with offline knowledge exchange but is positively related to online knowledge exchange. Regarding personal proximity, the study found that the homophily effect of hierarchical status merely emerges in offline learning networks. Online knowledge communities amplify the receiver effect of tenure. Furthermore, there appears to be a complementary relationship between online and offline learning networks.

Proximity offers a novel relational perspective for understanding the formation of knowledge exchange connections. This study enriches the literature on informal learning within project teams by revealing how different types of proximity shape learning networks across different channels in off-site construction projects.