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Construction industry faces challenges in making objective decisions due to monetary value attached to quality. Among various quality management techniques available, cost of quality (COQ) is one such method used to address the concern. However, the absence of measurable COQ factors to monitor quality costs hampers the implementation of COQ framework in the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to identify COQ factors focused on visible factors (VF) and hidden factors (HF) and the current requirements to achieve it.

This study is based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses protocol guidelines. The present study identified 57 articles published between 1992 and 2023 in peer-reviewed journals.

The findings reveal 22 factors, which are grouped into four categories based on COQ. Through systematic review, the authors observed limited methodological and theoretical diversity. In fact, there are no quantitative frameworks to calculate COQ. The study, therefore, developed a framework comprising four major routes/paths of COQ factors within the framework.

The COQ routes developed through this study will enable the practitioners to meticulously categorise VF and HF, facilitating quantifying of quality throughout the lifecycle of project, which is currently absent from the existing quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) approach. In addition, these COQ routes stand as essential construction strategies, significantly enhancing outcomes related to time, cost, quality, sustainability and fostering closer relationships within project frameworks.

The current study contributes significantly to the existing body of knowledge by developing various COQ routes and proposing future research directions to address gaps in the literature.

Innovation during project delivery is contested space. The aim in this research is to empirically explore the theory of this contested space and how project implementation can be optimized by the contractor to deliver better outcomes. It is hypothesized that project innovation has a proportional and measurable relationship to contractor success.

Based on a novel conceptual framework, this research applies a case study methodology to analyse 31 construction projects undertaken by a single Australian middle-tier contractor. Benefits from innovation are not often equitably shared. There are risks and rewards. The project innovation zone is defined as a combination of three key performance indicators – efficacy, efficiency and margin – merged into a single index that most likely shows evidence of “working smarter”.

Client–contractor project innovation (c2pi) is demonstrated to be strongly correlated with head contractor success (HCS), yielding an r² value of 71%. Innovative projects mostly show positive change in efficacy, efficiency and margin when comparing “planned” and “actual” outcomes. Across the cases studied, 35% demonstrated likely evidence of innovative delivery and 52% demonstrated evidence of success from the construction contractor's perspective.

These findings verify that, within the studied sample, the pursuit of innovation leads to projects that are likely to also have greater success for the head contractor, evidenced by the mix of five critical success factors: finishing on schedule, making profit, and having less defects, less accidents and higher quality workmanship. These outcomes arguably also apply to sub-contractors, where the head contractor assumes the role of “client”.

Claims are increasingly becoming a norm in construction projects and thus an area that is attracting interventions through researches. This paper aims to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects.

This is correlation study type of study that attempts to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Significant causes and effects of construction claims were determined using one-sample t-test. To establish the relationship, the significant causes and effects of construction claims were correlated using bivariate correlation analysis.

Among the significant causes, variations, change of scope of the project and delay in completion of works have high level of significant positive relationship with five to six other causes and positive relationship with multiple effects ranging from five to six. Besides, among significant effects, delay in completion and delivering of construction projects, poor contractual relationship among parties and extension of time have significant positive relationship with multiple causes.

The findings of this study are limited to causes-causes relationship and causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. This means effects–effects relationship was not covered that could be an important area to investigate as some of causes and effects are at times termed interchangeably.

With reference to previous studies which have focused on determining the causes and effects of construction claims, the findings of the current study have specific contribution on claims management as it divulges the causes of constructions claims that have multiplier effects to the project as a result of their linkage.

The paper unveils causes of claims with multiplier effects to construction projects for project participants to devise strategies to minimize and consequently eliminate them.

Although several studies have aimed to present models to predict conflict outcomes, fewer methods have been developed to analyze conflict manageability and provide management strategies based on prediction models. This research pitches into the manageability analysis of conflicts occur during the implementation of a proposed change in construction projects. In this way, a framework has been developed by defining two parameters: the predictability index and the preventability index.

Within this framework, the predictability index determines how many outcomes of the prediction model can be used for conflict management based on the degree of clarity. The preventability index demonstrates how preventive measures for conflict management can be identified. Eventually, three preventive measures can be determined: (1) identifying weaknesses of decision-making patterns and organizational culture, (2) identifying events that may be prevented using soft skills and (3) identifying differences among similar change-implementation scenarios and evaluating causes of the differences. To demonstrate the capabilities of proposed framework, a practical example has been analyzed.

The results show that the behavior of the project parties can be psychologically analyzed, and psychological conflicts can be distinguished from technical conflicts. Moreover, identifying the weaknesses of parties' decision-making patterns and their organizational culture is the most effective measure to prevent the conflicts.

This research contributes to the construction body of knowledge by quantifying the predictability and preventability of conflicts between the project parties in a construction project based on: (1) the certainty level of the conflict occurrence and (2) the level of alignment between predicted outcomes of the conflict occurrence and the issued change request and/or change order.

By adopting the “hard” and “soft” project management (PM) approaches from the PM-literature, this paper aims to problematize the expected role of client organizations in driving innovation in the transport infrastructure sector.

Addressing a large public client in Sweden, a case study design was initially applied to provide in-depth insights and perspectives of client project managers’ views and experiences of managing projects expected to drive innovation. In this paper, the concepts of “hard” and “soft” are used to discuss empirical findings on challenges associated with adopting a PM-approach for driving innovation in projects. The empirical material consists of interview data, complemented with observations and archival data.

Findings reveal challenges associated with combining hard and soft approaches, frequently demonstrating difficulties in balancing short-term project expectations with the promotion of innovation. In line with the literature, project managers note that there is a need for soft approaches to promote development and drive innovation. Yet, findings reflect a situation in which operational success criteria predominate, whereas soft approaches are not sufficiently used to create the grounds required for fostering innovation.

Insights are provided into how PM-approaches may impact construction innovation in the infrastructure sector, demonstrating a need for further research on the challenges and implications of applying and combining hard and soft PM-approaches.

The complex interaction of politics and the economy is a critical factor for the sustainable growth and development of the construction sector (CNS). This study aims to investigate the effects of type of political administration including democracy and military on the performance of CNS using the Nigerian Construction Sector (NCS) as a case study.

A 48 year (1970–2017) time series data (TSD) on the NCS and the gross domestic product (GDP) based on 2010 constant USD were extracted from the United Nations Statistical Department database. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models were used to analyze the TSD. The ANCOVA model includes the GDP as correlational variable or covariate.

The estimates of the ANOVA model indicate that democratic administration is significantly better than military administration in construction performance. However, the ANCOVA model indicates that the GDP is more important than political administration in the performance of the CNS. The study recommends for a new national construction policy, favourable fiscal and monetary policy, local content development policy and construction credit guaranty scheme for the rapid growth and development of the NCS.

Hitherto, little is known about the influence of political administration on the performance of the CNS. This study provides empirical evidence from a developing economy perspective. It presents the relationships and highlights recommendations for driving growth in the construction industry.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the structure and dynamics of academic articles relating to public procurement (PP) in the period 1984–2022 (up to May). The researchers also intend to analyse how this knowledge domain has grown since 1984.

A bibliometric analysis was carried out to examine the existing state of PP research. Based on 640 journal articles indexed in the Scopus database and written by 1,247 authors over nearly four decades, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to reveal the intellectual structure of academic works pertaining to PP.

Findings reveal that PP research from Scopus has significantly increased in the past decade. Major journals publishing PP research are International Journal of Procurement Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management and Public Money and Management. Results also indicate that authors’ cooperation network is fragmented, showing limited collaboration among PP researchers. In addition, results suggest that the institutional collaboration network in PP research mirrors what is commonly referred to as the North–South divide, signifying insufficient research collaboration between developed and developing countries’ institutions. According to the co-occurrence keyword network and topic modelling, PP revolves around five main themes, including innovation, corruption, sustainable and green PP, PP contracts and small and medium enterprises. Based on these results, several directions for future research are suggested.

This paper provides an increased understanding of the entire PP field and the potential research directions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first-ever application of bibliometric techniques and topic modelling to examine the development of PP research since 1984 based on scholarly publications extracted from the Scopus database.

This study aims to explore the innovation deployment of construction contracting firms through exploratory–exploitative learning and organisational ambidexterity.

Firstly, a literature-based conceptual framework was developed to explain innovation implementation through exploratory–exploitative learning and organisational ambidexterity. A prominent Hong Kong construction contracting firm was then selected as the case study to explore its innovation deployment at different organisational levels (i.e. firm and project levels). Qualitative data were attained by conducting 12 semi-structured interviews with industry experts and document analysis. The thematic analysis using NVivo 12 software was adopted to analyse data.

Findings reveal that the case study firm successfully fosters innovation when ambidexterity is achieved through the balance between exploratory (i.e. radical innovation) and exploitative learnings (i.e. incremental innovation).

Establishing uniform ambidexterity (i.e. 50:50) at the firm or project level is not mandatory to deploy innovation successfully. The ratio can vary based on the characteristics and requirements of construction firms.

This paper shall motivate construction practitioners to adopt radical–incremental innovation ambidexterity in firms and ultimately enhance the productivity and efficiency of the construction industry.

Previous construction innovation research has frequently explored firm or project-level innovation separately. This study identified a multi-level focus on innovation. Through the lens of exploratory–exploitative theory, different forms of innovation ambidexterity for different levels are suggested rather than one specific ambidexterity.

The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry encounter substantial risks and challenges in its evolution towards sustainable development. International businesses, multinational AEC organisations, technical professionals, project and portfolio management organisations face global connectivity challenges between business units, especially during the outbreak of novel coronavirus pandemic, to manage construction megaprojects (CMPs). That raises the need to manage global connectivity as a main strategic goal of global organisations. This paper aims to investigate barriers to integrating lean construction (LC) practices and integrated project delivery (IPD) on CMPs towards the global integrated delivery (GID) transformative initiatives and develop future of work (FOW) global initiatives in contemporary multinational AEC organisations.

A two-stage quantitative and qualitative research approach is adopted. The qualitative research methodology consists of a literature review to appraise barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. Barriers are arranged into six-factor clusters (FCs), with a conceptualisation of LeanIPD&GID, GID strategy placements and FOW global initiatives with multiple validations. This analysis also involved semi-structured interviews and focus group techniques. Stage two consisted of an empirical questionnaire survey that shaped the foundation of analysis and findings of 230 respondents from 23 countries with extensive cosmopolitan experience in the construction of megaprojects. The survey examined a set of 28 barriers to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs resulting from a detailed analysis of extant literature after validation. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were exploited for data analysis, percentage scoring analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and eigenvalues were used to elaborate on clustered factors.

The research conceptualised LeanIPD&GID principles and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives and FOW global initiatives. It concluded that the most significant barriers to integration of LeanIPD&GID on CMPs are “lack of mandatory building information modelling (BIM) and LC industry standards and regulations by governments”, “lack of involvement and support of governments”, “high costs of BIM software licenses”, “resistance of industry to change from traditional working practices” and “high initial investment in staff training costs of BIM”. PCA revealed the most significant FCs are “education and knowledge-related barriers”, “project objectives-related barriers” and “attitude-related barriers”. Awareness of BIM in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is higher than LC and LC awareness is higher than IPD knowledge. Whilst BIM adoption in the MENA region is higher than LC; the second is still taking its first steps, whilst IPD has little implementation. LeanBIM is slightly integrated, whilst LeanIPD integration is almost not present.

The research findings, conclusion and recommendation and proposed GID strategy placements for LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives to integrating LeanIPD&GID on CMPs. This will allow project key stakeholders to place emphasis on tackling LeanIPD&GID barriers identified in this research and commence GID strategies. The study has provided effective practical strategies for enhancing the integration of LeanIPD&GID transformative initiatives on CMPs.