Search results

Recently, there has been increased interest in the use of simulation for real‐time planning, scheduling, control of construction projects and obtaining optimum productivity. The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate the use of simulation as an effective tool for estimating production rates in an attempt to prepare optimal time schedules.

Gaza Beach‐Camp Shore Protection Project was taken as a case study. The case study is used to demonstrate how to estimate effectively the production rates of labour and equipment during the implementation of the project activities and to estimate the duration of the project using process simulation. The model simulates the construction of 1,600 m of gabions divided into 32 identical stations. Probabilistic distribution functions were used to fit the time functions for each process and sub‐process based on 100 replications.

The simulation output generated three probabilistic values for completing each activity upon which the overall project completion time is determined. The resources utilizations for all processes were also generated and used in the determination of the average production rates.

The computation of productivity based on effective resources utilization has been demonstrated to give better results than estimating productivity based on aggregate resources assignments.

The scarcity of literature related to the PPP (public-private partnership) barriers in construction projects within war areas, and hence the dearth of information to deliver viable and effective strategies to those barriers, are the primary causes for the failures of PPP schemes in such areas, particularly in Palestine. Financial and non-financial investments are more problematic in war zones than non-war nations and may escalate barrier for projects' success. The investigation purposes to discover proper answers to the barriers of PPP infrastructure schemes and highlight the execution of barrier reactions.

Specialists were asked to deliver approaches to alleviate 21 barriers and recommend the period needed for applying them. Later, the relevance of alleviation events was examined through prioritization according to the results attained from three elements, i.e. the impact of every barrier and the strategy's viability and efficacy.

While the most unfavorable barrier was finalized to be the unfeasibility of delivering physical security, the most valid answer was associated with the lack of government cohesiveness and responsibility to perform its duties. The discovered barriers are typical within warring nations, but the paper concentrated on Palestine.

This study is an initial effort to examine PPP barriers in Palestinian infrastructure projects. The presented strategies can be applied as a novel set for barrier reaction improvement in occupied nations such as Palestine. Moreover, the results can develop the usage of PPP and enhance the barrier sharing in this scheme.

This study aims at identifying the main causes of change orders in highway construction projects, determining the factors that affect rework in highway construction projects, examining the relationship between change orders and rework and at developing a predictive model that will determine the impact of change orders on rework in highway construction projects in Palestine.

A questionnaire survey was used to identify the main change order causes and rework causes from the perspectives of contractors and consultants. The questionnaire contained 16 causes of change orders and 19 causes of rework which had been identified from the literature reviewed. The study also identifies the impact of change orders on rework based on data comprising 22 highway construction projects implemented in Palestine. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data.

The study concluded that the five most common causes of change orders can be identified as: change of project scope by owner (additional – enhancement), lack of coordination between construction parties; owner’s financial difficulties, change in materials, and errors and omissions in design. The study has also established that among the various factors that causes rework, non-conformance with specification requirements, scope changes, late design changes, lack of labor experience, lack of labor skills and improper subcontractor selection top the list. Using regression analysis, the results reveal a significant relationship between change orders and rework cost in highway construction projects in Palestine.

By ranking the various change orders causes and rework causes from the perspectives of consultants and contractors, the study provides a fresh perspective on an old chronic problem in the construction sector. This study has provided evidence on the most significant change orders causes and rework causes in the Palestinian highway construction, as well as the impact of change orders or rework on constructions sites. Finally, although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.

The results address the common causes of change orders and reworks in highway construction projects in Palestine. The results also address the relation between change orders and rework cost based on data collected from highway construction projects implemented in the West Bank in Palestine. This study is the first study conducted in the West Bank in Palestine to identify the change orders and reworks causes in highway construction projects.

This paper aims to critically examine the concept of social enterprises in Palestine. It uses the lens of institutional theory to understand how the political and economic context of the society can influence certain types of entrepreneurial behaviors and be responsible for the emergence of social enterprises. The paper uses a critical perspective to deconstruct social enterprises in Palestine to shed light on reasons for their emergence, motives and agendas.

A case study design was used to examine the phenomenon of social enterprises. The case study method is valuable in describing the how and why issues of a phenomenon in the present time frame. Two leading social enterprises operating within the Palestinian region were identified. The two enterprises were contacted for a series of interviews (over a period of few months) with their owners and other active members.

The empirical findings suggest that social enterprise model is still in its embryonic stages in Palestine. Their social mission of community development and sustainability is not completely sincere. The social entrepreneurs were willing to compromise social mission for economic surplus. The national structure, political framework, legal environment, social, cultural and the economic conditions of Palestine have served as suitable launching pads for social enterprises with not so authentic mission of serving the society. It has encouraged entrepreneurial philosophy and behavior, which has masked hidden economic and political agendas with exterior goals of social welfare and community development.

This paper adopts a critical perspective and a qualitative methodology, and this raises the concern if the arguments pertaining to social enterprise raised in this paper can sustain in a developed nation with a stabilized political scenario or whether this alternative ideology is only relevant to underdeveloped countries with unstable, political conditions, such as Palestine.

This paper provides relevant information for students, critical academics and policymakers.

The paper argues for a more concise definition for the model of social enterprises. It argues for clear legal guidelines which could monitor the formation of social enterprises in Palestine.

This paper provides an alternative perspective on social enterprises within a constrained and political unstable economy of Palestine.

Home country support from hardship nation émigrés is an under-researched topic area, particularly pertaining to Palestine which is a comparatively extreme case of oppression and apartheid. The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of this motivation, in context to well-known dynamics of diaspora behavior, to understand individual and situational variables that drive ethical decision-making.

This is an exploratory mixed methods field study using self-reported variables. Structural equation modeling was conducted through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Qualitative data is presented through thematic analysis and bracketing.

A desire to live in Palestine in the future was not in itself significantly related to a favorable outlook for the country or to a desire to support the nation. Findings indicate that family support and a sense of altruism and hopefulness for the future of Palestine influenced home country nationalism in charitable investments in hospitals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and educational institutions. Subjects’ direct portfolio investments tended to be primarily real estate and to a lesser degree in business operations.

The sample size needs to be larger and draw from greater diversity in overseas locations, as well as respondents representing Gaza and Israel locations. Objective outcome variables would be desirous.

Social constructivism theory is applied in understanding the ethical nature of the loyalty of these diasporans.

The Palestine diaspora is under-researched, particularly individual differences in motives for overseas Palestinians’ support of their ancestral homeland. Some might consider it irrational to desire to return and invest in the nation. Policymakers can benefit from empirical evidence of the type of investment and their rationales. A profile emerges in the respondents’ commitment of financial resources for personal and family real estate. Their direct investments include business ownership, as well as education and health care organizations, impacting the sustainability of this nation.

Estimating is a fundamental part of the construction industry. The success or failure of a project is dependent on the accuracy of several estimates through‐out the course of the project. Construction estimating is the compilation and analysis of many items that influence and contribute to the cost of a project. Estimating which is done before the physical performance of the work requires a detailed study and careful analysis of the bidding documents, in order to achieve the most accurate estimate possible of the probable cost consistent with the bidding time available and the accuracy and completeness of the information submitted. Overestimated or underestimated cost has the potential to cause loss to local contracting companies. The objective of this paper is to identify the essential factors and their relative importance that affect accuracy of cost estimation of building contracts in the Gaza strip. The results of analyzing fifty one factors considered in a questionnaire survey concluded that the main factors are: location of the project, segmentation of the Gaza strip and limitation of movements between areas, political situation, and financial status of the owner.

The aim of this study is to identify the risk matrix for factors causing time delay in road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from owners' viewpoint.

In total, 43 factors that might cause delays of road construction projects were defined through a detailed literature review. The factors were tabulated in a questionnaire form, which was sent out to a total of 25 public owners asking their contribution in identifying the risk matrix for the 43 factors in terms of impact and probability of occurrence. Three zones were used in the matrix according to the degree of factors' severity on the projects' time delay; they are: green, yellow, and red.

The analysis of 43 factors considered indicates that six factors are located in the green zone, 29 factors are located in the yellow zone, and eight factors are located in the red zone.

The paper identifies the risk matrix for factors affecting time delay in road construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from the owners' perspective.

Purpose – This chapter studies the lyrics and music videos of Palestinian hip-hop artists, exploring their narratives of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and constructions of identity and place.

Design/methodology/approach – This semiotic analysis profiles lyrics and music videos found almost exclusively on the Internet. The dominant themes that the chapter discusses emerge directly from the data, creating important connections across borders and requiring a transnational analytical framework.

Findings – Artists in Palestine and in the diaspora appropriate concepts and terminology from criminal justice to narrate life under occupation. In contrast to this construction of occupation, artists also employ metaphors of nature to signify a biological connection to the land of Palestine that represents both victimization and a steadfast and “rooted” resistance. Mapped onto this cross-borders shared semiotics are implications for new understandings of place and identity.

Research limitations – Limitations exist in both content and methodology. Interpreting in the lyrics an embrace of a primordial connection to the land should raise concerns about Orientalist representations of non-Westerners. I devote a section of the chapter to problematizing the primordial Palestinian. In terms of method, I speak no Arabic or Hebrew, though I have taken steps to mitigate this problem, including privileging songs in English or with English translations and employing the assistance of an Arabic and Hebrew speaker.

Originality/value – Despite these limitations, this chapter contributes to an understanding of the transnational potential of hip-hop to craft counter-hegemonic narratives of identity, place, and conflict.

The study aims to identify the reality of the role of the banking sector in financing the Palestinian real estate and construction sector. The study demonstrated the importance of this issue by highlighting the role that Palestinian banks play in treating the problem of the increasing demand for housing because of the natural increase in population numbers and their various needs, and through knowledge of historical development for banks and the facilities they provided, especially to the real estate and construction sector.

This study carried out data from (2000–2019). The descriptive analytical method and regression method was used for analyzing the measurement model. Holt’s method was used to estimate the size of housing units needed in the Palestinian territories over the next seven years.

The study concluded that there is a need to build about (200,000) residential units in the next seven years, and the study recommended the necessity of increasing the pooled contribution of banks and directing part of it to the real estate and construction sector, amending legislative laws for the real estate market and construction, reducing taxes on building supplies and encouraging the private sector with stimulus policies or share.

The study provided results and data regarding the state of the housing sector and how its financed by Palestinian banks; it clarified the limitations and difficulties that face this sector and provides a clear path for what needs to be done to develop this sector and overcome its barriers.

This current study contributes to focusing on the reality of the banking sector and its role in financing the real estate and construction sector, in addition to the appropriate period of time for the study, which ranges between 2000 and 2019, which is a period sufficient to identify the reality of Palestinian real estate and construction and banks and the relationship between them.

The researcher believes that the study differed from its predecessors through an in-depth analysis of the existing relationship between cash assets and real assets, given that the priority of real assets over cash assets, as cash assets are considered as real over cash assets, but they do not constitute a substitute for them in economic development, the study contains a vision that recommends linking the activities of the banking sector with economic and social problems and the national issue, i.e. independence and self-determination.

Subcontractors play a significant role in the Palestinian construction industry as about 90 per cent of the work is performed by subcontractors. The main objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the major problems which exist between the contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry in the Gaza Strip.

A questionnaire was designed to elicit contractors' and subcontractors' viewpoints regarding the most important causes of problems that affect the relationship between them. A total of 53 problems were identified based on a literature review, a pilot study was considered in this study and was listed under five groups. A total of 150 questionnaires were randomly sent to contractors and subcontractors. The respondents had extensive experience in the construction industry with average working experience of 20 years. The questionnaire was validated by the criterion‐related reliability test that measures the correlation coefficients between the factors selected for in each group and for all groups as one entity, and structure validity test (Spearman test).

The result of the survey indicated that, assigning part of the works to new subcontractor without informing the original subcontractor, contractor's financial problems, delay in contract progress payments, non‐adherence to the conditions of the contract, non‐adherence of the subcontractor to the time schedule, and lack of construction quality work were the most important causes of interface problems, while involvement in several projects with the contractor at the same time, weather conditions, and geological problems on site were considered as trivial causes of potential interface problems. Spearman's rank correlation tests showed that there are no differences in the viewpoints between contractors and subcontractors.

The research findings might assist practitioners to focus on major problems which have existed between the contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry in their present and future projects. By eliminating or minimizing these problems, subcontractors are encouraged to contribute significantly to the capital risk, resources, managerial effort, and business expertise supporting the largest industry in Palestine. The paper would be valuable for all academics and industry professionals involved in construction business in general.