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The purpose of this study is to characterize construction management research at the interface of explanatory science and design science.

The dual nature of construction management research is analyzed by relating this field of research to natural science, design science and its interface. Research at the interface of explanatory science and design science is characterized by identifying studies published on this interface in high quality construction management journals.

Research at this interface should focus on technological rules developed through testing in practical contexts as in design science as well as grounding in the explanatory sciences. The nature of testing technological rules is highly similar to the replication logic recommended for comparative case studies.

Developing and testing technological rules combines the design science and the explanatory science mode of knowledge production in construction management research, while it also respects some of the methodological differences between the two modes.

Developing and testing technological rules is the common ground on which research in construction management practice and research can meet and reduce the relevance gap between science and the world of practice.

This study aims to enhance the simultaneous utilization of measure in product design by mapping out the possible and potential uses of a measure for both academicians and practitioners.

To map out a way for the simultaneous utilization of measure, the authors assessed and portrayed the diverse facets of a four-factor measure for the development of mobile devices by adopting pluralistic techniques through a series of studies and three different study samples.

This study provided a solution for enhancing the usability of measure in product management, showing that a measure can be developed using a pluralistic methodology so that the results can be incorporated into the practitioners’ design activities that occur and when the gap between theory and practice is a knowledge production problem.

The main positioning of this study involves the science-design interface (Simon, 1992) to bridge the important gap between theory and practice by showcasing a measure development for product design as a strategy of intellectual arbitrage (Van De Ven and Johnson, 2006). Relying on the design scientific approach, the authors focused this study on a prescriptive procedure rather than a more rigorous methodological procedure.

The authors provided product managers with a systematic and synergistic approach to developing a measure and recommended several usages of the developed measure to enhance its simultaneous utilization between academics and practitioners.

Emphasizing pluralistic methodology in the measure development, the authors recommended the concept of intra-examination. The first-order intra-examination, utilizing Bayesian Networks, makes available the thick descriptions of the measure and supports reasoning under uncertainty. The second-order intra-examination examined nomological networks regarding the pragmatic relationships between the four factors that comprise the measure and other important constructs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of culture on the cross-cultural design of the recognition-based graphical password (RBG-P) interface as inferred from Chinese and Saudi subjects’ image selections.

The authors use a between-group design adopted using two groups of participants from China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to measure the differences caused by the effects of cultures on graphical password image selections. Three hypotheses have been tested in a four-week long study carried out using two questionnaires and an RBG-P webtool designed for images selection.

The results have indicated that participants are equally biased not only toward their own culture but also depending on their opinions about other cultures. In addition, when creating the password, it has been observed that culture not only influenced the image selection to create the password but also have an effect on the sequence of the images forming the password.

Appropriately used image selection differences can be used appropriately in cross-cultural designs that will lead to better development of culturally adaptive interfaces that will boost the security posture of RBG-P authentication.

Some RBG-P interfaces that are produced outside the designer’s culture may suffer the effects of cultural differences. Hence, to incorporate culture in the interface, authentication systems within applications should be flexible by designing images that fit the culture in which the software will be used. To this end, access control interface testing should also be carried out in the environmental and cultural context in which it is will be used.

This paper provides useful information for international developers who develop cross-cultural usable secure designs. In such environments, the cross-culturally designs may have significant effects on the acceptability and adoption adaptation of the interface to multi-cultural settings.

Advances in material agency driven by artificial intelligence (AI) have facilitated breakthroughs in material adaptivity enabling smart objects to autonomously provide individualized smart services, which makes smart objects act as social actors embedded in the real world. However, little is known about how material adaptivity fosters the infusion use of smart objects to maximize the value of smart services in customers' lives. This study examines the underlying mechanism of material adaptivity (task and social adaptivity) on AI infusion use, drawing on the theoretical lens of social embeddedness.

This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), mediating tests, path comparison tests and polynomial modeling to analyze the proposed research model and hypotheses.

The results supported the proposed research model and hypotheses, except for the hypothesis of the comparative effects on infusion use. Besides, the results of mediating tests suggested the different roles of social embeddedness in the impacts of task and social adaptivity on infusion use. The post hoc analysis based on polynomial modeling provided a possible explanation for the unsupported hypothesis, suggesting the nonlinear differences in the underlying influencing mechanisms of instrumental and relational embeddedness on infusion use.

The formation mechanisms of AI infusion use based on material adaptivity and social embeddedness help to develop the business strategies that enable smart objects as social actors to exert a key role in users' daily lives, in turn realizing the social and economic value of AI.

This study advances the theoretical research on material adaptivity, updates the information system (IS) research on infusion use and identifies the bridging role of social embeddedness of smart objects as agentic social actors in the AI context.

In contrast to the behavioural paradigm of IS research, design science seeks to develop a body of practically‐oriented knowledge which will directly aid the design, implementation, and use of information technologies and systems. Design science, however, remains a minority practice. The purpose of this paper is to argue the case for its more widespread adoption, especially so in research on innovation.

To this end, the authors report an example of design science in action. Two experiments are reported, both concerning the design of the user interface for domestic heating systems. Of note is the use of a medium‐fidelity laboratory simulation (“microworld”) in this work.

Two specific substantive findings results. First that ecologically designed feedback, embodying a strong mapping between task goals and system status, produces superior task performance. Second, that predictive decision aids provide clear benefits over other forms of user support, such as advisory systems.

Whilst arguing the general case for design science, the study shows that there are formidable barriers to its wider promulgation. These include the challenges of constructing realistic meta‐artefacts, compounded by the complex, modal and uncertain nature of design theory itself. The practical value of the microworld paradigm is also confirmed.

Although research in this field has largely addressed the workplace, here the paper addresses the domestic realm. Further novelty derives from the use of the microworld approach. The argument that design science should draw more on the proven methods of “good design” (e.g. prototyping, user participation) in terms of its own praxis is also noteworthy.

Data quality metadata (DQM) is a set of quality measurements associated with the data. Prior research in data quality has shown that DQM improves decision performance. The same research has also shown that DQM overloads the cognitive capacity of decision-makers. Visualization is a proven technique to reduce cognitive overload in decision-making. This paper aims to describe a prototype decision support system with a visual interface and examine its efficacy in reducing cognitive overload in the context of decision-making with DQM.

The authors describe the salient features of the prototype and following the design science paradigm, this paper evaluates its usefulness using an experimental setting.

The authors find that the interface not only reduced perceived mental demand but also improved decision performance despite added task complexity due to the presence of DQM.

A drawback of this study is the sample size. With a sample size of 51, the power of the model to draw conclusions is weakened.

In today’s decision environments, decision-makers deal with extraordinary volumes of data the quality of which is unknown or not determinable with any certainty. The interface and its evaluation offer insights into the design of decision support systems that reduce the complexity of the data and facilitate the integration of DQM into the decision tasks.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only research to build and evaluate a decision-support prototype for structured decision-making with DQM.

This paper seeks to report the results of an empirical study examining the influence of cross-cultural differences on the value creation process from e-business systems in the supply chain.

A questionnaire was sent out to senior managers in companies operating in two culturally distinct national cultures. The effects of cross-cultural differences were examined by testing for between-group differences in the structural model using the multi-group partial least squares (PLS) statistical approach.

Consistent with the resource-based view (RBV), contingency “fit” theory, and prior research, this study demonstrates that the value creation process from e-business systems is significantly enhanced in companies operating in national cultures that emphasize cooperation and interdependence, and promote group-level interests over individual interests.

The mechanisms through which performance improvement is achieved from e-business systems are still not fully understood. Little is still known about how digital capabilities and environmental factors work together to influence e-business value creation along the supply chain. In addition, while contextual factors have been highlighted within the stream, the knowledge base is especially limited regarding the role of global factors in shaping the attainment of value from e-business systems in this context. Filling these gaps, this study simultaneously investigates the roles of intermediate capabilities and the macro-environment in creating value from e-business in the supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the fundamental underpinnings of product modularity and how these can be adapted to construction and its specificities (e.g. one-off products delivered by temporary supply chains) to create a model to design modular buildings.

This research adopts a design science research approach. Explanation I (substantive theory devising based on the analysis of an artefact ‒ a low-income housing project) is used, followed by Solution Incubation (a model to implement product modularity in buildings design).

The model allows product modularity to be implemented at distinct levels (i.e. building, systems and components) at a single stage (building design), different from manufacturing where each level is considered at a distinct stage. This is in line with the project investigated: modularity was considered for house layouts, roof types and gable formats.

The model provides a hands-on tool for practitioners to design modular buildings. The low-income project is also extensively detailed: three-dimensional models, floor plans and conceptual diagrams (outlining how fundamental underpinnings were applied at each level) are presented. There is a lack of comprehensive accounts such as the one presented here to demonstrate the application of product modularity in real-world projects.

This paper identifies and adapts the fundamental underpinnings of product modularity to construction, and it details how these were applied to a low-income housing design at distinct levels. Based on these two endeavours, a model to implement product modularity in buildings design is proposed.

Despite the technological paradigm shift presented to the architecture, engineering, construction and operations sector (AECO), the full-fledged acceptance of the building information modelling (BIM) methodology has been slower than initially anticipated. Indeed, this study aims to acknowledge the need for increasing supportive technologies enabling the use of BIM, attending to available human resources, their requirements and their tasks.

A complete case study is described, including the development process centred on design science research methodology followed by the usability assessment procedure validated by construction projects facility management operational staff.

Results show that participants could interact with BIM using openBIM processes and file formats naturally, as most participants reached an efficiency level close to that expected for users already familiar with the interface (i.e. high-efficiency values). These results are consistent with the reported perceived satisfaction and analysis of participants’ discourses through 62 semi-structured interviews.

The contributions of the present study are twofold: a proposal for a virtual reality openBIM framework is presented, particularly for the semantic enrichment of BIM models, and a methodology for evaluating the usability of this type of system in the AECO sector.