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In the Global North, affordable housing has evolved and thrived, and it is now gaining traction in the Global South, where governments have been vocal supporters of the concept. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the important criteria for selecting affordable housing units in Ghana.

A quantitative research approach was used, and a survey was administered to the residents. The data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The relative importance index technique was used to rank the important criteria, and the EFA technique was used to create a taxonomy system for the criteria.

The hierarchical ranking of the most significant criteria for selecting affordable housing includes community safety, waste management and access to good-quality education. Furthermore, the important criteria for selecting affordable housing are classified into two groups, namely, “sustainability criteria” and “housing demand and supply and social service provision”.

This study has implications for the real estate industry and construction stakeholders, as this will inform decision-making in terms of the design of affordable housing and the suitability of the location for the development.

These findings provide a baseline to support potential homeowners and tenants in their quest to select affordable housing. Furthermore, these findings will aid future longitudinal research into the indicators or criteria for selecting suitable locations for the development of low- and middle-income housing.

This study analyzed the relationship between mobile financial services (MFS) usage and customer satisfaction with MFS in Bangladesh, considering perception, purpose of use and technical challenges as the primary factors influencing customer satisfaction with MFS. The aim is to determine the factors most influencing the use of MFS.

Data were collected from 400 MFS users through a structured web survey using snowball sampling that is consistent with the nature of MFS users who are difficult to identify or locate. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data and evaluate the reliability and validity of the measurement model.

The results show that customers’ perceptions and satisfaction significantly impact their intention to use MFS. Specifically, customers’ perceptions strongly influence their satisfaction with MFS, and the purpose of use significantly predicts both perception and satisfaction. Technical problems and challenges were found to have no significant impact on satisfaction levels, but other factors were more critical. Furthermore, the integration of innovative technological solutions is crucial for fostering sustainability in MFS, as it enhances reliability and efficiency while minimizing environmental footprints.

The study was conducted in a single country, relied on self-reported data, and used a cross-sectional design, which limits the ability to draw causal inferences. Future research could explore the factors that influence customer satisfaction with MFS in different countries and regions and incorporate additional variables to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the drivers of customer satisfaction with MFS.

This study significantly contributes by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework with the innovation resistance theory, offering a nuanced understanding of MFS adoption. The findings challenge conventional wisdom, highlighting the limited impact of technical problems on satisfaction and emphasizing the central role of user perceptions in shaping satisfaction and intention to use.

In this article, the aim is to document the divergences/convergences between the market perceptions of quality and the financial estimations for office buildings relative to the notion of centrality and the distance to the central business district (CBD).

Based on a hierarchical approach that decomposes and estimates the perceived quality of buildings from the stakeholders’ perspectives, we study the geographies of perceived quality measures in the Greater Paris Metropolis and compare them to the financial geography.

The perceived location quality decreases with distance from the CBD whereas judgments on the built structure and the workplace do not, exhibiting a ring-shaped pattern. The gradient of the components of the perceived quality are heterogeneous, having positive, negative or null values. Appraisers tend only to consider the quality of location in their estimations.

This article raises the issue of fair spatial judgments by appraisers and the financial market. Monocentricity is not the rule in the market perceptions of quality. It suggests that financial estimates are strongly biased, with mental representation of centrality as a judgmental heuristic.

This paper aims to simulate vital corrective actions (CAs) affecting system availability through a system dynamics approach based on the results obtained by analyzing the causal relationships among failure modes and effects analysis elements.

A stock and flow diagram has been developed to simulate system behaviors during a timeframe. Some improvement scenarios regarding the most necessary CAs according to their strategic priority and the possibility of eliminating root causes of critical failure modes in a roller-transmission system have been simulated and analyzed to choose the most effective one(s) for the system availability. The proposed approach has been examined in a steel-manufacturing company.

Results indicated the most effective CAs to remove or diminish critical failure causes that led to the less reliability of the system. It illustrated the impacts of the selected CAs on eliminating or decreasing root causes of the critical failure modes, lessening the system’s failure rate and increasing the system availability more effectively.

Results allow managers and decision-makers to consider different maintenance scenarios without wasting time and more cost, choosing the most appropriate option according to system conditions.

This study innovation would be the dynamic analysis of interactions among failure modes, effects and causes over time to predict the system behavior and improve availability by choosing the most effective CAs through improvement scenario simulation via VENSIM software.

Improving buildability of building designs with the aid of buildability assessment is essential because of the effect of designs on construction. Despite the plethora of research into buildability reported over the years, a review of the literature shown a dearth of research into the factors supporting the implementation of buildability assessment. Because buildability assessment has been confirmed to be highly beneficial to construction business, this study aims to investigate the factors supporting the implementation of buildability assessment as a tool for buildability improvement using Nigeria as a representative case.

Survey research method was adopted for the study. Questionnaires were administered to a purposively selected group of architects, engineers, builders and quantity surveyors involved in construction project delivery within client, consulting and contracting organisations in Nigeria. A total of 368 questionnaires were distributed among the sampled participants, out of which, a total of 219 representing 60% were sufficiently filled and returned. Data collected were analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics.

The results revealed owner’s commitment, clients’ awareness of the benefits of conducting buildability assessment on building design, unity amongst different professionals in the construction industry, designers consider buildability important, adequate coordination amongst different design disciplines, adequate channel for co-ordination and communication between designers and constructors at the design stage and adequate support from the government as the top most seven factors supporting buildability assessment implementation in construction sector of Nigeria. Secondly, the results from the research revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in factors supporting buildability assessment implementation in construction between clients and consulting and contracting construction organisations in Nigeria.

The findings provide in-depth insight of the factors supporting the implementation of buildability assessment in construction that can help principal stakeholders in construction to facilitate development of strategies required in supporting the adoption and implementation of buildability assessment tool for buildability improvement.