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Equitable risk allocation is important for the effective management of inevitable risks in International Construction Joint Venture (ICJV) projects. Previous studies have documented risks facing ICJV projects. However, there is a dearth of studies on the risk allocation preferences that take into consideration the opinions of both the local and foreign partners. This study aims to fill this gap by ascertaining the risk allocation preferences of the partners of ICJV projects for effective risk management.

Through a survey, data on risk allocation preferences were collected from both local and foreign partners of ICJV projects using a comprehensive register of 74 risks.

Following analysis, six risks were allocated to the local partner, 11 were allocated to the foreign partner, 51 risks were shared, four were allocated to a third party and two were to be negotiated based on the specific circumstances of the project. Practically, the study’s findings will help ICJV partners in drafting their ICJV contracts to adequately allocate risks and reduce contract negotiation time considerably.

The findings from this study will help partners in drafting their joint venture contract agreement and also reduce the period for contract negotiation. Knowledge of the preferred risk allocation is important in allocating risks in the contract agreement to the relevant partner for effective management.

This study, to the best knowledge of the authors, is one of the early studies to ascertain the risk allocation preferences of ICJV project partners in the Ghanaian construction industry – a departure from previous studies which focused on the identification and evaluation of risks. This study is also different from previous studies by considering the allocation preferences of both partners of the ICJV. The collection of data from both partners of the ICJV helped to consider their perceptions on risk allocation and evaluation, essentially leading to cross-cultural and optimal risk allocation preferences.

Effective safety communication facilitates the sharing of relevant knowledge that helps to improve safety behaviours, such as superior hazard identification and compliance. This study aims to explore channels by which construction companies can effectively communicate health and safety (H&S) among communities of their operations.

Based on a quantitative research approach, this study addressed the knowledge gap through a cross-sectional survey of 250 contractors (comprising 155 building and 95 road contractors) involved in various projects in the Ghanaian construction industry. These contractors were selected by using a stratified simple random sampling technique. Data obtained from the survey was analysed through descriptive (i.e. frequencies, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (i.e. exploratory factor analysis) statistical analyses.

The findings from the mean scores revealed that all the 12 communication channels identified in the literature, confirmed through piloting and examined by the respondents, were important channels through which construction companies can effectively communicate H&S amongst communities of their operations. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a clustering of the 12 channels of communication into 5 components: “safety demonstration in the community”; “social media”; “mass media”; “community engagement”; and “opinion leaders”.

This study offers construction project managers the means of managing one of the major stakeholders of a construction project (the community). It provides an actionable opportunity that can be leveraged strategically to integrate community members into projects to promote synergy and local content inclusion while gaining a peaceful atmosphere to achieve their project goals.

Practically, this study provides construction project managers with a means of managing one of the major stakeholders of a construction project (the community) and also demonstrates the integration of community members into projects to promote synergy and local content inclusion. This would give construction organisations a peaceful atmosphere to accomplish their project objectives.

The social implication of this study is that the study offers society a means of creating safer Ghanaian communities by offering them the knowledge of identifying hazards and avoiding risky behaviours, creating a good safety atmosphere in these communities.

This study presents construction organisations with a unique opportunity to transfer and share novel external knowledge within a different social system (the community). It contributes to the state-of-the-art knowledge in H&S communication by providing channels through which H&S can be communicated in a developing country such as Ghana.

The failure rate of international construction joint venture (ICJV) projects has been noted to be high in developing countries due to the complexity and risky nature of construction projects in the international market. The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the risks facing ICJV projects in Ghana.

A risk register was developed through a comprehensive literature review. The identified risks were then used in a questionnaire survey involving local and foreign partners in ICJV projects in Ghana.

From a total of 74 risks identified, categorized into country-level risks, market-level risks and project-level risks, the “top ten” risks found to be the most critical risks facing ICJV projects in Ghana include unstable currency exchange rates, inflation, design changes, high-interest rate, budget overrun, cash flow problems of the client, economy fluctuation, difficulty in obtaining approval of projects from host government authorities/bureaucracy, potential financial distress of JV partner and bribery and corruption.

This study provides a comprehensive list of risks ICJV partners are likely to encounter on their projects in developing countries. Furthermore, this study improves on one of the major limitations of previous ICJV studies by collecting data from both partners of the ICJV, appropriate for cross-cultural examination and comparison.

This paper aims to investigate the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management practices of construction companies in South Korea to ascertain specific components and practices that need improvement for successful OSH performance.

A quantitative research strategy was adopted. A close-ended questionnaire survey covering 45 OSH management practices was sent to 324 contractors; 108 responses were gathered, representing a response rate of 33.3%. Data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and Pearson’s chi-square test.

The findings revealed that there is a moderate level of implementation of OSH management practices among construction firms in South Korea. However, there is a significant disparity in terms of implementation between large enterprises on the one hand and small to medium enterprises on the other. Furthermore, a few of the business characteristics (i.e. the size of companies and certification to OHSAS 18001) were closely associated with the extent of the implementation of OSH management practices.

This research uncovers the OSH management practices that are poorly implemented and lays the foundation for appropriate measures to improve OSH in South Korean construction companies. It suggests an effective strategy for communicating health and safety issues to workers, training safety managers, reviewing risk assessments, reviewing the health and safety plan, incentivising workers by rewarding good behaviour and having a penal mechanism for employees not adhering to the rules.

The study provides insights into an under-investigated South Korean construction industry topic. It offers additional insight into state-of-the-art health and safety management practices in the construction industry in South Korea. Furthermore, it establishes which components of OSH management practice require improvement in the Korean context. This is also one of the few studies in OSH which establishes the association between the construction business characteristics and OSH management in the South Korean construction domain.

International construction joint ventures (ICJVs) will fully realize their potential for success and effectively monitor performance when an adequate and suitable performance benchmark is established. However, existing studies fall short of adequately providing a mutually acceptable benchmark for assessing the performance of ICJVs. This study aims to develop an adequate and suitable performance measurement framework for ICJVs.

A twofold structured questionnaire survey, supplemented by semi-structured interviews, was used to collect data from the practitioners of ICJVs hosted in the developing country of Ghana. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and a hybrid-fuzzy logic approach.

A list of 30 performance indicators (PIs), defined by project performance, perceived satisfaction, company/partner performance, socio-environmental performance and performance of ICJV management, was validated and proved to be significant. Only 22 out of the 30 PIs, focusing on project efficiency, societal improvement and organizational goals are realized by the ICJV practitioners. Further, suitable determinants and viable quantitative ranges for measuring each PI are established to prevent different interpretations of the meanings of PIs and objectively express the level of success in quantitative terms. The results call for further investigation of the convergence between the practice of and research into some PIs (e.g. socio-environmental performance) and a range of different performance levels (PLs) in a more scientific manner.

This study not only advances the knowledge base and practice of performance measurement in ICJVs but could also assist stakeholders and decision-makers to assess, compare and monitor the performance of different ICJV projects on common grounds objectively.

This study not only comprehensively assessed PIs – what to measure – but also systematically determined suitable determinants – how to measure – for each PI.

There is an urgent need for the construction industry to improve its current performance to increase productivity and satisfy the complex and varying needs of project clients. To be successful, construction companies must innovate. Unfortunately, the extant literature has revealed some inertia towards innovation which in several cases is because of lack of the organisational readiness required to embrace innovation. Various models for assessing organisational readiness are proposed in the literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to determine the applicability of existing models for assessing the readiness of construction organisations to innovate.

A desk study of the extant literature was conducted to identify perspectives of readiness assessment and, based on a comparative framework, a set of readiness assessment models identified was examined to ascertain their perspectives on organisational readiness assessment.

Five models/tools of organisational readiness assessments were identified and compared based on a set of identified criteria. The comparative analysis revealed that three of the models can be used to assess the readiness of construction organisations to innovate, albeit with varied scopes of modification.

The paper presents an overview of readiness assessment perspectives developed through models that could help organisations in selecting the most appropriate tool to assess their readiness.

The paper uses a comparative framework as a basis for analysing the identified models. It further discusses the strengths and weaknesses inherent in each model noting critical areas of omission.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the factors that facilitate adoption of building information modelling (BIM) among quantity surveyors (QSs) using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT).

Using a quantitative approach, factors identified in the UTAUT are examined. The empirical investigation has been conducted using survey questionnaire. The data set has been obtained from 73 practicing QSs in Ghana.

The results indicated a significant positive impact of effort expectancy, facilitation conditions and hedonic motivation towards BIM adoption. Surprisingly social influence and performance expectancy have a negative impact on BIM adoption.

The structures uncovered in the study show that not all UTAUT factors are applicable within the study area. The findings provide a good backdrop in the development of policy and a roadmap for BIM implementation in Ghana.

The original contribution and value of the paper is the use of UTAUT2 to provide empirical evidence on factors that facilitate BIM adoption in Ghana amongst QSs.

Multilateral aid agencies generate most of their funds from taxpayers, and therefore, it is necessary to ensure that recipients or borrowers use the funds for the intended purposes. The World Bank is one of the major multilateral aid agencies that fund infrastructure projects in developing countries. Like other multilateral aid agencies, the World Bank uses oversight instruments/auditing tools to manage procurement risk on their funded projects. However, empirical insight about the effectiveness of these auditing tools is limited. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of one of such multilateral aid agencies’ auditing tools (i.e. World Bank’s procurement post review [PPR]) in procurement risk mitigation on funded projects in a developing country context.

The study is based on secondary data obtained from the World Bank PPR reports carried out in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 financial years. Five projects with the highest loan amounts and five with the lowest loan amounts for the three-year period were selected from the 24 active World Bank projects during the time of the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a representative sample from a list of contracts under the 10 projects.

The results of the analysis showed a clear decline in the number of both major and minor deviations over the three-year period while an increase in the number of contracts with “No Deviation”. The study therefore concludes that procurement risk experienced a decline amongst the World Bank projects in Ghana where post reviews were carried out on yearly basis.

The study identifies the need for more frequent PPR and makes a case for the need to investigate whether PPR is a superior auditing tool compared to the other tools.

The phenomenon of wicked problems is inextricably associated with a design process, especially participatory design. The management of wicked problems in participatory design, however, remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the choosing by advantages (CBA) decision system to manage wicked problems in participatory design.

Two case studies, involving the application of CBA to make typical participatory design decisions, are evaluated to establish how responsively the CBA decision system operates in the midst of wicked problems in participatory design.

Findings point to the exploitability of some elements and attributes of the CBA process to manage wicked problems in participatory design, to some extent. The observed collaborative attributes of CBA is particularly helpful and play a key role in mitigating the adverse effects of wicked problems on collaboration in this regard.

The recommendation of the paper is the incorporation of CBA in the development of stakeholder involvement frameworks for a design process.

This paper contributes to knowledge on relying on elements and the attributes of a decision-making system, such as CBA, to manage stakeholder involvement in the design process, particularly focussing on wicked problems. The CBA decision system still remains emergent regarding its application and research in the AEC industry.

This paper aims to identify the key barriers to the adoption of green certification of buildings in Ghana.

The study adopts face-to-face and telephonic interviews with ten built environment professionals, using a semi-structured interview guide. Qualitative responses to the interview were thematically analysed using NVivo 11 Pro analysis application software.

The findings suggest that “lack of information on existing green buildings”, “lack of incentives”, “conservative nature of Ghanaians”, “lack of active government participation”, “inadequate human resource”, “lack of awareness of the benefits”, “cost and financing” and “lack of legal backing” are the eight key barriers that hinder the adoption of green certification of buildings.

The research is limited to built environment professionals registered with their appropriate professional bodies. The findings cannot be generalized and extended to other developing countries that do not share similar characteristics and context with Ghana.

Practically, this study highlights, for the benefit of the construction industry and the government, the critical barriers to the adoption of green certification of buildings in Ghana. Identification of these barriers provides a pathway for the provision of pragmatic solutions towards the adoption of green buildings in Ghana.

Findings of the research make significant contribution to the debate on the barriers to the adoption of green certification of buildings. Four out of the eight barriers (inadequate awareness of the benefits of green certification of buildings, inadequate human resource, conservative nature of Ghanaian and lack of information on existing green buildings) identified are unique in the context of other related studies and advanced knowledge on the subject matter.