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Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on personal preferences and the evaluation of direct costs. Researchers and practitioners have debated appropriate measurement systems for evaluating the impacts of prefabricated products and for comparing them with conventional on-site construction practices. The more advanced, cost–benefit approach to evaluating prefabricated products often inspires controversy because it may generate inaccurate results when converting non-monetary effects into costs. As prefabrication may affect multiple organisations and product subsystems, the method used to decide on production methods should consider multiple direct and indirect impacts, including nonmonetary ones. Thus, this study aims to develop a multi-criteria method to evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabrication solutions to facilitate decision-making on whether to use prefabricated products.

Drawing upon a literature review, this research suggests a multi-criteria method that combines the choosing-by-advantage approach with a cost–benefit analysis. The method was presented for validation in focus group discussions and tested in a case involving a prefabricated bathroom.

The analysis indicates that the method helps a project’s stakeholders communicate about the relative merits of prefabrication and conventional construction while facilitating the final decision of whether to use prefabrication.

This research contributes a method of evaluating the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabricated products. The research underlines the need to evaluate the diverse benefits and sacrifices that stakeholder face when considering production methods in construction.

The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology to estimate the benefits and costs of stakeholder engagement (SE). Indeed, in the transport sector, it is consolidated that a good decision-making process foresees the involvement of the main stakeholders, but what are the benefits and costs of the SE? How to quantify these impacts and explicitly take them into account in a cost-benefit analysis? In this paper, an attempt to answer these questions is provided.

In this paper, a methodology is proposed to estimate the benefits and costs of SE. Moreover, the proposed methodology is applied to a case study with an attempt to identify direct and indirect cost and benefit drivers within the context.

A range of examples of the monetary costs and benefits of SE is provided through the case study of the high-speed rail corridor connecting Bari and Naples in Italy.

Limits in quantifying all the aspects of engagement.

To be adopted by public administrations when deciding whether carrying out a project.

Social inclusion is a must in any decision-making process concerning big projects affecting the community.

The original value of this paper is to provide a contribution to the current literature on the quantitative representation of the impacts of SE. Indeed, a methodology to quantify and monetize the costs and benefits of SE is proposed.

The digital divide refers to the gap among citizens of a country or across borders due to the lack of ease of access to digital means for some and the difficulty for others. The possession of electronic gadgets, smooth internet connectivity, and other forms of digital communication can have a wide gap in availability among countries. This gap is mostly influenced by factors that are of infrastructural, political, cultural, demographical, generational, and socioeconomic nature. On account of developed and developing countries, the gap is disseminated and thoroughly complex. Although the developed nations around the globe proved to have narrowed digital divide as a major source of development and advancement in respective countries, it is quite challenging for emerging economies to adhere to the same processes for development. For an emerging economy, the prudent cost-benefit analysis carried out by the government can have varying effects on undertaking projects related to minimizing the digital divide. Nevertheless, the importance of narrowing the gap of the digital divide is unparalleled, and governments of emerging economies are realizing the benefits of it and investing their resources accordingly. Furthermore, information technology can be a catalyst in facilitating processes that save a lot of costs, bring holistic quality improvements, and implement effective and efficient government policies that lead to digitalization and sustainable consumption of resources. Consequently, governments are getting actively involved in the digitalization of their respective countries to turn their smart cities into more intelligent ones. Even so, it is important to understand that taking one policy to address all citizens is not realistic. Hence, understanding the foundational knowledge of the citizens, the demand of the population under various sectors, framing well-rounded policies with alternatives, and effectively and efficiently implementing them are extremely crucial.

Human resource analytics (HRA) has developed as a new business trend and challenge, stressing the strategic relevance of human resource management (HRM) to senior management executives. HRA is a process that uses statistical techniques, to link HR practices to organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to carry out recent development in HRA, bibliometric analysis and content analysis to present a comprehensive account of HRA to fill the gap in the evolution and status of its research.

The study is based on the recent advances in HRA in terms of it evolution and advancement by analyzing and drawing conclusions 480 articles retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database from 2003 to March 2022. The methodology is divided into four steps: data collection, analysis, visualization and interpretation. The study performed a rigorous bibliometric assessment of HRA using the bibliometric R-package and VOS viewer.

The findings based on the literature survey, and bibliometric analysis, reveal the path-breaking articles, the prominent authors, most contributing institutions and countries that have contributed to the HRA scholarship. The results show that the number of publications has significantly increased from 2015 onwards, reaching a maximum of 101 journals in 2021. The USA, China, India, Canada and the United Kingdom were the most productive countries in terms of the total number of publications. Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management, International Journal of Manpower, and Journal of Organizational Effectiveness-People and Performance are the top four academic outlets in the field of HRA. Additionally, the study identifies four clusters of HRA research and the knowledge gaps in HRA scholarship.

The present study is based on the articles retrieved from the WoS. The study underpins HRA research to understand the trends and presents a structured account. However, the study is not free from limitations. It is recommended that future research could be undertaken by combining WoS and Scopus databases to have a more detailed and comprehensive view. This study indicates that the field is still in its infancy stage. Hence, there is a need for more arduous research on the topic to help develop a better understanding of this field.

The findings of knowledge clusters will drive future researchers to augment the field. The evolution of the four clusters and their subsequent development will fill the gaps in the literature. This study enriches the HRA literature and the findings of this study may assist academicians, researchers and managers in furthering their research in the identified research clusters

This paper proposes selecting a construction project portfolio in the context of a public institution, which makes it possible to assess quantitative and qualitative criteria, thereby meeting the needs of the institution and the existing constraints.

The research design follows a framework using technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) associated with integer linear programming.

The method involves a flow of assessments allowing criteria and weights to be elicited where outcomes are based on the experts' intra-criteria assessment of alternatives and decision-makers' inter-criteria assessment. This is of utmost interest to public organizations, where selections must result in benefits and lower costs, integrating the experts' technical and management perspectives.

Public institutions are characterized by having limited financial and personnel resources for project development despite having a high demand for requests not associated with profits, making it essential to have a framework that enables using multiple criteria to better evaluate the benefits related to these decisions.

The main contributions of this article are: (1) the proposition of a framework for selecting construction project portfolios considering the organization's strategic needs; (2) identifying quantitative and qualitative assessment criteria for project selection; (3) integrating TOPSIS with an optimization process for selecting the construction project portfolios and (4) providing a structured decision process for selecting the portfolio that best represents the interests of the institution within its limited resources and personnel.

During the planning and delivery, iron triangle criteria, are essential for internal stakeholders (e.g. owner, sponsors and delivery company), mostly ignoring external stakeholders such as local communities (often perceived as inconvenient) or end users. In the medium-long term, infrastructure cost and benefit are far more important for external stakeholders and the environment.

The iron triangle criteria, i.e. delivering on time, budget and quality/scope, is the traditional perspective to assess the success of infrastructure projects. Delivering on cost and time is significant, but particularly for infrastructure, there are more relevant success criteria. The authors argue which criteria are important, and explain why.

The authors challenge the traditional view of judging projects based on respecting time, budget and quality/scope. The authors explain that discussing the social value and contribution to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is extremely relevant. Crucially these metrics keep changing, even after the project is terminated.

The authors provide a new seven-step action plan for decision-makers to improve infrastructure provision by reflecting on SDGs and engaging with external stakeholders, particularly minorities and the weaker members of their communities. Such an action plan is focused on the cost and value for different stakeholders on different timeframes and progress toward social value and achieving SDGs.

This study aims to combine information about sea level rise (SLR), the probability distribution of storm surge, a flood damage function and the value of property by elevation along the coast of selected cities to measure expected flood damage. The selected six cities all have nearby long-term tidal stations that can be used to estimate the probability distribution of floods. The model is calibrated to each city. The study then compares the cost of building higher seawalls today along the coast versus the benefit of each wall (the reduction in expected flood damage).

The combination of coastal storms and SLR has led to extensive flood damage across American cities. This study creates a simple generic model that evaluates whether seawalls would be effective at addressing this flooding problem. The paper develops an approach that readily measures the expected flood benefits and costs of alternative coastal seawalls. The approach takes account of near term SLR and the probability distribution of storm surge. The model finds seawalls are effective only in cities where many buildings are in the 25-year flood plain.

Cities with many buildings built on land below 2 m in elevation (the 25-year flood plain) have high expected flood damage from storms and SLR. Cities which already have many buildings in this flood plain would benefit from seawalls. Assuming seawalls are built above the high tide line, the optimal wall height that maximizes net benefits is between 0.9 to 1.2 m. These relatively low seawalls block 70%–83% of expected flood damage in these cities. Fair flood insurance is the least cost strategy for handling the remaining damages that overtop the optimal seawalls.

The analysis evaluates whether or not to build a seawall the length of each city at high tide lines. However, the analysis also finds several long stretches of coast in two cities where a wall is not warranted because there are few vulnerable buildings. Future analyses should consider seawalls in more spatially detailed sections of each city. Each section could then be analyzed independently. Whether or not more complex hydrodynamic models are needed to evaluate coastal resilience planning should also be explored. Alternative solutions such as planned retreat and nature-based solutions should be compared with seawalls in future studies as well.

Cities should be careful to avoid development in the 25-year flood plain because of high expected flood damage. Cities that have low elevation areas subject to frequent flooding should consider seawalls to reduce frequent flooding. Because they are very costly and have low expected benefits, high walls that can stop a one-hundred-year storm are generally not worth building.

The analysis reveals that the most important factor determining the vulnerability of cities along the eastern coastline of the USA is the number of buildings built below 2 m in elevation (the 25-year flood plain). Cities should use zoning to discourage further development in the 25-year flood plain. Cities which already have many buildings in this flood plain would benefit from city-wide seawalls. Assuming these walls are built at mean high-high tide, the optimal height of current seawalls should be relatively modest – averaging about 0.9–1.2 m above ground. Using fair insurance for the remaining risk is less expensive than building taller walls. In particular, the cost of seawalls that protect against a major hurricane surge are over three times the expected benefit and should not be built. As decades pass and observed sea level progresses, seawalls and the boundary of the 25-year flood plain should be reevaluated.

This paper develops a coastal flood model that combines SLR and the probability distribution of storm surges with the value of property by elevation to estimate the expected damage from storm surge. The model is relatively easy to calibrate making it a practical tool to guide city flood planning. The authors illustrate what insights such a model gives about coastal resilience to flooding across six cities along the Eastern US coastline.

This paper aims to revise the ideal ratio for selecting new products based on their qualitative analysis of desired/undesired functions.

The Kano model has been integrated with the ideal ratio to select and prioritize the design of new products. First, the functional analysis method in value engineering was used to determine the attributes and functions of each product design. Then, the Kano model was used to determine the type of each product attribute and to use the desirable functions of attractive attributes, one-dimensional, must-be and undesirable functions of reverse attributes in the ideal ratio to select and prioritize the design of the product. To examine the application of the proposed approach, a gas instruments manufacturing company was investigated, and five new products were selected for the study.

Based on the results, the product design of industrial regulator GS 77/22 was selected as the superior product and the digital diaphragm gas meter, ultrasonic gas meter, axial regulator and turbine gas meter had the second to fifth priority, respectively.

The proposed method can help product designers determine product designs suitable for customers' expectations and provide a desirable prioritization of the product design in terms of their ideal ratio according to the customers.

The proposed approach provides a more desirable prioritization compared with other prioritization methods based on customers' viewpoints. In the proposed method, the Kano model results in respecting customers, understanding community needs, respecting consumers' rights and increasing the organization's social responsibility, which will significantly increase the chance of product success in the market.

Through the significance matrix, this paper aims to investigate and explore the main sustainability factors of mega transportation infrastructure projects. Sydney’s Metro mega transportation infrastructure is used as a case study. Sydney’s Metro was selected because of its sustainability challenges faced because of the areas’ diverse ecological zones. Sydney’s Metro is thus examined as the basis of best practice for the determination of the sustainability factors of transportation infrastructures.

Using the significance matrix as a methodology, this research evaluates the environmental impact assessment and environmental assessment processes, to alleviate the problems of the mega transportation infrastructure.

This research found that a more comprehensive determination is needed to further analyse the sustainability factors of mega transportation infrastructures, use of a significance matrix would further assess the environmental complexities of mega transportation infrastructures and the sustainability factors of mega transportation infrastructures should include a nonlinear and asymmetrical scheme highlighting its components and carefully outlining its integration and consolidation.

Although there is concurrent research into sustainability factors of mega transportation, this paper undertakes a new methodology for such infrastructure. While the significance matrix is not a new concept, it has never been used specifically for mega transportation infrastructure. Subsequently, using the significance matrix as a methodology, this research undertakes such environmental analysis and assessment and thus produces a qualitative risk analysis matrix. The findings from this research will ultimately assist the key stakeholders of mega transportation infrastructures to better plan, monitor and support similar projects.

The circular economy concept emerged as the resolution to the destructive linear economy practices. Nevertheless, the transition to a circular built environment is hindered due to the ambiguities of the economic value of the concept. Conversely, numerous decision-making tools are applied in the construction industry in assessing economic alternatives, even if there is a gap in utilising these tools in appraising circular economic practices. Hence, this study investigates the potential benefits of applying proven decision-making practices, particularly criteria scoring matrices, in developing circular built environments.

A qualitative approach was followed to achieve the aim of the study. A conceptual design of a criteria scoring matrix was developed with a comprehensive literature survey. Semi-structured interviews of a three-round Delphi expert survey were employed to assess the matrix qualitatively and develop the matrix further. Data were analysed using the content analysis method.

The lack of a value assessment tool in economically assessing the circular economy principles is a key barrier to transcending to a circular built environment. In addressing this issue, this study develops a criteria scoring matrix for circularity value assessment during the design stage of a construction project.

This research contributes to the theory by developing a criteria scoring matrix to measure the economic contribution of circular economy principles. Further, this research contributes to the practice by allowing construction alternatives to be selected, balancing the potential economic return options of a project with the project's contribution to a circular economy.