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Public private partnerships (PPPs) face challenges in implementation and operation, and need efforts to improve their performance. The purpose of this paper is to review the PPP literature quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to establish challenge themes and set research directions.

More than 4,000 papers published between 2008 and 2017 were retrieved. From this collection, papers from five major international journals were selected to explore extant PPP research findings under six main PPP challenges including: challenges related to financial management, concession period and price determination, operational phase, risk management, PPP project procurement and stakeholder management (SM). Initially, the papers were categorised quantitatively into the identified challenges and subsequently the articles were qualitatively analysed and discussed.

Poor SM, the complexity of risk management models, project delivery time and cost overruns, inadequate consideration of whole life-cycle aspects and over-reliance on a Public Sector Comparator for evaluating PPPs are found to be the most commonly encountered issues. These all warrant more extensive attention and innovative solutions.

PPP projects have faced many challenges in practice and also existing research findings have limited application in practice. Challenges highlighted in this research can be a focus area in practice to improve the performance of PPPs.

No previous reviews have explored the challenges relating to PPP projects and how they can then addressed by further studies in the field. This review is intended to address that gap, and should help to shed light on further research directions to address the emerging challenges in PPP procurement.

The complicated nature of megaprojects requires appropriate analysis of multiple stakeholders to achieve project objectives and to accommodate stakeholder interests. During the last two decades, many stakeholder theories and empirical studies have sprouted. Although previous studies have contributed to the development of stakeholder theory, it seems that these theoretical advances have not been fully adopted and acknowledged in practices, especially in megaprojects. The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of stakeholder analysis and engagement practices adopted in the Australian megaprojects over the last two decades.

Four mega construction projects are described and analysed in this study. Secondary data were first assembled in order to get general knowledge of each case. Interviews were conducted with the project directors. Project documents were collected from the project teams and reviewed. Wherever the project information was unclear, e-mails were sent to the directors and the team members to confirm the details.

Project teams have started to apply snowball rolling and stakeholder attribute assessment methods to analyse stakeholders. However, there is still a way to adopt the “network” analysis perspective because the project teams are reluctant to use complicated tools which need specialists’ assistance. The stakeholder engagement practices have evolved to an extent where the project teams monitor the dynamics of stakeholders’ requirements. Projects teams have identified the importance of continuity to manage stakeholders in these massive projects. However, a structured method selection mechanism for stakeholder engagement has not been developed.

This study will help academics to understand the adoption progress and status of stakeholder management methods.

Factors affecting bid/no-bid decisions of international projects are more complex than those of domestic projects. The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank decision factors considered by variously sized Chinese international contractors (CICs) and categorize those groups of factors important to experienced practitioners.

The analysis of factors identified by a literature review is conducted based on data derived from questionnaire results received from 119 CIC project and bidding managers. The relative importance of factors is measured by mean value and standard deviation. The discrepancy in rank and importance value perceived by variously sized CICs are explored by ranking disparity analysis, non-parametric test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test. Finally, factor analysis is used to categorize the underlying groups of factors considered by CICs.

In sum, 41 factors are identified through the literature review as having an impact on the bid decision. Significant disparities in ranking and importance are found in several factors, which partially affect the consistency of the ranking of factors perceived between large and small-medium CICs. Ultimately, nine major factors are identified as impacting the bidding decision, with “contractor’s capability” and “country risk of the host country,” being the most important.

The weight of a factor considered in a decision varies across contractors as a function of contractor size. Whether using models or subjective judgment in making decisions, it is beneficial to fully understand the main groups of factors influencing the decision. Vulnerability to country risk emerges as the first criterion accessed in the bid decision.

A comprehensive set of factors is established for CICs, including both general factors common to domestic projects, and international factors unique to international projects. All factors are grouped by inferential analysis from the perspective of contractors, which reveals the underlying mechanism of the bid decision-making process. While the data were collected from CICs, the methodology in exploring factors, along with implications, is determined to be applicable internationally.

Australia has a huge stock of community buildings built up over decades. Their replacements consume a large sum of money from country’s economy which has called for a strategy for their sustainable management. For this, a comprehensive decision-making structure is an utmost requirement. The purpose of this paper is to capture their sustainable management from four aspects, i.e. environmental, economic, social and functional.

The design process follows an extensive review of environmental and life cycle assessments and company context documents. Extracted factors are tailored to community buildings management following expert consultation. However, the resulted list of factors is extremely large, and “factor analysis” technique is used to group the factors. For this, an industry-wide questionnaire across Australian local councils is employed to solicit opinions of the list of factors.

The analysis has pinpointed 18 key parameters (criteria) to represent all four aspects. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the factors and the analysis results based on the questionnaire responses.

The final decision-making structure incorporates all these aspects and criteria. This can be used to develop a decision-making model which produces a sustainability index for building components. Asset managers can mainly use the sustainability index to prioritise their maintenance activities and eventually, to find out cost-optimisation options for them.

Most notably, this is the first study to apply all four sustainability aspects (environmental, economic, social and functional) to develop a decision-making structure for Australian community buildings’ sustainable management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and uncover key determinants that could explain partners' commitment to risk management in public‐private partnership projects so that partners' risk management commitment is taken into the consideration of optimal risk allocation strategies.

Based on an extensive literature review and an examination of the purchasing power parity (PPP) market, an industry‐wide questionnaire survey was conducted to collect the data for a confirmatory factor analysis. Necessary statistical tests are conducted to ensure the validity of the analysis results.

The factor analysis results show that the procedure of confirmatory factor analysis is statistically appropriate and satisfactory. As a result, partners' organizational commitment to risk management in public‐private partnerships can now be determined by a set of components, namely general attitude to a risk, perceived one's own ability to manage a risk, and the perceived reward for bearing a risk.

It is recommended, based on the empirical results shown in this paper, that, in addition to partners' risk management capability, decision‐makers, both from public and private sectors, should also seriously consider partners' risk management commitment. Both factors influence the formation of optimal risk allocation strategies, either by their individual or interacting effects. Future research may therefore explore how to form optimal risk allocation strategies by integrating organizational capability and commitment, the determinants and measurement of which have been established in this study.

This paper makes an original contribution to the general body of knowledge on risk allocation in large‐scale infrastructure projects in Australia adopting the procurement method of public‐private partnership. In particular, this paper has innovatively established a measurement model of organisational commitment to risk management, which is crucial to determining optimal risk allocation strategies and in turn achieving project success. The score coefficients of all obtained components can be used to construct components by linear combination so that commitment to risk management can be measured. Previous research has barely focused on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to use the wavelet neural network and genetic algorithm to study the effects of polyalphaolefin, TMP108 and OCP0016 on the kinematic viscosity, viscosity index and pour point of lubricating oil.

Wavelet neural network is used to train the known samples, test the unknown samples and compare the obtained results with those obtained with a traditional empirical formula.

It is found that the wavelet neural network prediction value is closer to the experimental value than the traditional empirical formula calculation value.

The results show that the wavelet neural network can be used to study the physical and chemical indexes of lubricating oil.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the indigenous concept of suzhi at individual and organizational levels, and identify its dimensions for human resource management (HRM) research and practice in China.

Based on a comprehensive review of suzhi literature, Chinese cultural and historical literature, as well as Western mainstream HRM research, a multidimensional suzhi framework is conceptualized.

As an indigenous expression, suzhi can be and has been adopted for Chinese HRM research and practice. As a multidimensional construct, one’s cognitive suzhi is jointly determined by corresponding moral suzhi, wenhua (knowledge-based) suzhi and zhuanye (professional) suzhi. Cognitive suzhi, in turn, determines one’s behavioral suzhi that drives employees to enhance organizational performance, and this relationship is moderated by psychological suzhi.

The proposed framework provides new insight for Chinese indigenous management research, particularly in developing suzhi measurement for different dimensions. It also informs HRM practices in recruiting, selection, performance analysis and employee career development.

The complexity of suzhi dimensions from an organizational HRM perspective is analyzed. The resulting suzhi framework offers new insight for HRM research and practices in China.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the indigenous Chinese concept of suzhi (素质) with the aim of furthering the development of Chinese human resource management (HRM) research and practice.

An extensive review of the literature on suzhi, published in the West, as well as in China, is the basis for proffering an organizational-level conceptualization of suzhi in the Chinese context.

Instead of understanding it as a free-floating signifier, we argue that suzhi can be considered as a criterion-based framework for HRM research and practice. Suzhi research is classified into two major sources – indigenous Chinese and indigenized Western constructs. We further make a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic suzhi, and analyze a popular set of suzhi criteria, considering de (morality) and cai (talent), while focusing on de in HRM selection (德才兼备, 以德为先). As multilevel and multidimensional framework, suzhi criteria may form different gestalts in different organizations and industries.

From a social cultural and historical perspective, HRM research that incorporates a combination of indigenous and indigenized suzhi characteristics may receive better acceptance by individuals, organizations and the society in the Chinese context. Accordingly, the reconstruction of suzhi into manageable and measurable dimensions can be undertaken for more effective HRM practice in the Chinese context.

The HRM literature is advanced by linking the indigenous suzhi discourse to Chinese indigenous HRM research and practice.

The persistent growth of ‘nativists’ in Hong Kong not only highlighted people's consideration over mainlandization, it also stimulates Beijing's nerve on national security. This paper adopts a critical perspective to explore the development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ that emerged in 2015. It will show the development of ‘Hong Kong nationalism’ is a phenomenon compounded by the creation of critical academics, government exaggeration, and pro-Beijing media labeling. In fact, this phenomenon leads to the suppression of political space for critical opposition.

The interaction between Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, central government, critical academics, and pro-Beijing media will be used to adopt a conceptual framework to show how their interrelationship would derive tremendous impacts to the development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism.’ It will further investigate some implications for the further political development in Hong Kong.

The development of ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ illustrates the triangular relations between critical academic, HKSAR and the Beijing government, and pro-Beijing media. The critical academics create and imagine such ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ with Hong Kong's political destiny that stimulates the nerve of Beijing and HKSAR on territorial integrity. The ‘imagined nationalism’ advocated by critical and opposition academics and advanced by the activists not only opened the Pandora's box that derives a Trojan horse scenario for the development of pan-democratic camp which affects the democracy movement tremendously.

This paper is the first academic paper to explore ‘Hong Kong Nationalism’ through analyzing the discourse advocated by critical academics. This paper can also fill in the gap from existing literature about social movement in Hong Kong as most of them ignored the influence of radical nativist movement.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with an identification of a novel ink-jet printing sensor fabrication technology for fabricating flexible carbon heaters of macro and micro sizes, carbon interdigitated (IDT) electrodes and silver IDT electrodes. The technology involved in the proposed ink-jet printing method and materials used for the formulation of homemade nano-conductive inks (digital inks) are discussed in detail. The ink-jet printed flexible carbon heaters of different sizes (macro and micro) and carbon IDT electrodes and flexible silver IDT electrodes can be used as the flexible sensing layers in electrochemical gas sensors for sensitive and selective gas sensing applications. The characterization of ink-jet printed carbon heaters on Kapton substrate and its results are discussed. Similarly, the results of formulation of silver nano-conductive ink and printing of silver IDT electrodes on Kapton and its characterization are reported here for the first time.

Flexible carbon heaters of different sizes (macro and micro), carbon micro-IDT electrodes and silver IDT electrodes patterns were developed using AutoCAD 2D and printed on the Kapton (polyimide sheet) flexible substrate using the home-made nano-conductive inks with the help of EpsonT60 commercial piezo-head-based drop-on demand technology printer with standard printing options.

The proposed novel method is able to print heater patterns and IDT electrode patterns of approximately 12 µm and approximately 1 µm thickness, respectively, on flexible substrate using the home-made nano-conductive inks of carbon and silver by using a commercial low-cost printer. The home-made nano-conductive inks can be re-used for multiple prints up to six months shelf life. The resistance of the carbon heater was measured as 88 O under normal atmospheric condition. The novel flexible carbon heater was tested for its functionality and found to be satisfactory. The resistance of the silver IDT flexible electrodes was measured as 9.5 O which is better than the earlier works carried out in this paper.

The main challenge is associated with cleaning of printing ink ejection system in the existing commercial printers. The customization of the existing printer in the near future can minimize the printing challenges.

The novel ink-jet printing technology proposed in this work is cost-effective, capable of achieving bulk production of flexible sensor elements, and consumes the least device fabrication time and high material yielding. The printing can be done with commercial piezo-head-based ink-jet printers with custom-prepared nano-conductive inks. There is a huge market potential for this paper.

Both the carbon heaters and silver IDT electrodes were printed on Kapton flexible substrate by using the commercial printer for the first time. The paper is promising the revolution in flexible low-cost sensor fabrication for mass production, and it is an alternate for thin film and thick sensor fabrication methods. The future of sensor fabrication technology will be the ink-jet printing method. In this paper, the research developments of flexible carbon heaters and flexible silver IDT electrodes for the time are reported. The characterization of carbon heaters and silver IDT electrodes were carried out and confirmed that the results are favourable for gas sensor applications.