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The application of the traditional failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) technique has been widely questioned in evaluation information, risk factor weights and robustness of results. This paper develops a novel FMEA framework with extended MULTIMOORA method under interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy environment to solve these problems.

This paper introduces innovatively interval-value Pythagorean fuzzy weighted averaging (IVPFWA) operator, Tchebycheff metric distance and interval-value Pythagorean fuzzy weighted geometric (IVPFWG) operator into the MULTIMOORA submethods to obtain the risk ranking order for emergencies. Finally, an illustrative case is provided to demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of the novel fuzzy FMEA framework.

The feasibility and validity of the proposed method are verified by comparing with the existing methods. The calculation results indicate that the proposed method is more consistent with the actual situation of project and has more reference value.

The research results can provide supporting information for risk management decisions and offer decision-making basis for formulation of the follow-up emergency control and disposal scheme, which has certain guiding significance for the practical popularization and application of risk management strategies in the infrastructure projects.

A novel approach using FMEA with extended MULTIMOORA method is developed under IVPF environment, which considers weights of risk factors and experts. The method proposed has significantly improved the integrity of information in expert evaluation and the robustness of results.

The fuzziness and complexity of evaluation information are common phenomenon in practical decision-making problem, interval neutrosophic sets (INSs) is a power tool to deal with ambiguous information. Similarity measure plays an important role in judging the degree between ideal and each alternative in decision-making process, the purpose of this paper is to establish a multi-criteria decision-making method based on similarity measure under INSs.

Based on an extension of existing cosine similarity, this paper first introduces an improved cosine similarity measure between interval neutosophic numbers, which considers the degrees of the truth membership, the indeterminacy membership and the falsity membership of the evaluation values. And then a multi-criteria decision-making method is established based on the improved cosine similarity measure, in which the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) is adopted to aggregate the neutrosophic information related to each alternative. Finally, an example on supplier selection is given to illustrate the feasibility and practicality of the presented decision-making method.

In the whole process of research and practice, it was realized that the application field of the proposed similarity measure theory still should be expanded, and the development of interval number theory is one of further research direction.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: this study presents an improved cosine similarity measure under INSs, in which the weights of the three independent components of an interval number are taken into account; OWA are adopted to aggregate the neutrosophic information related to each alternative; and a multi-criteria decision-making method using the proposed similarity is developed under INSs.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, determining which factors critically influence asymmetrical trust behaviors in construction projects within the Chinese context; second, proposing corresponding measures to deal with the asymmetrical behaviors of both the owner and the contractor promoting cooperative relationships among participants in construction organizations.

A theoretical model was developed and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 183 professionals. The data collected were analyzed by the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

The results identified six critical factors influencing trust asymmetry behavior in construction projects. The power imbalance, information asymmetry and cognitive difference have a positive influence on both upward-trust behavior and downward-trust behavior in the construction organization, while the competence, performance capacity and relationship satisfaction have negative effects.

This paper based on the assumption that trust asymmetry behavior has a negative impact on project performance, which should be further studied. Besides, future research may carry out a comparative analysis among the trusting relationships and behavior of different participants dynamically.

This paper contributes to the literature in three aspects. First, the factors influencing trust behavior in project organization have been identified for the first time. Second, a comprehensive view of trust asymmetry behavior has been theorized by SEM method. Third, the result bridges the existing gap caused by the lack of empirical evidence to understand the genetic mechanisms of trust asymmetry behavior in the construction industry.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of asymmetric trust on construction project management performance in China's construction industry. Moreover, the authors explore the mediating role of two types of knowledge sharing (explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing) in explaining the association between asymmetric trust and project management performance.

A theoretical model based on the research hypotheses proposed in this study was developed and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 271 professionals. The data collected was analyzed by the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

The results of this study indicate that there is a significant and negative association between asymmetric trust and project management performance. Moreover, two types of knowledge sharing (explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing) have different degrees of impact on improving project management performance. In addition, tacit knowledge sharing is a mediator between asymmetric trust and project management performance.

The data used in this study is from Chinese scenarios, so the research conclusions and application effects based on this are bound to have certain regional limitations. Besides, there are many factors that affect project management performance improving, and the relationships among them are so complex. The theoretical model proposed in this study may not be fully considered. Therefore, follow-up researchers can consider bringing more suitable variables into their researches, so that the theoretical researches can be more in line with the actual project management practice, and the specific mechanism for improving project management performance can be explained more deeply.

This research's value is as follows: Firstly, this paper contributes to the trust and relational governance literature by expanding the research perspective of mutual trust to asymmetric trust. Specially, this research designs a measurement scale for asymmetric trust and then reveals the impact mechanism of it on project management performance, which will certainly promote research paradigm change of trust. Secondly, this research is beneficial to knowledge sharing literature in the construction management field by expanding the research scope of knowledge sharing from a cross-organizational perspective.

Trust is the glue that holds cooperative relationships together and often exists in an asymmetric manner. The purpose of this study is to explore how to mitigate the issue of losses or increased transaction costs caused by opportunistic behavior in a soft environment where trust asymmetry is quite common and difficult to avoid.

This study focuses on examining asymmetric trust between the government and the private sector in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Drawing upon both project realities and relevant literature, the primary conditional variables influencing asymmetric trust are identified. These variables encompass power perception asymmetry, information asymmetry, interaction behavior, risk perception differences and government-side control. Subsequently, through the use of a survey questionnaire, binary-matched data from both the government and the private sector are collected. The study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to conduct a configurational analysis, aiming to investigate the causal pathways that trigger asymmetric trust.

No single conditional variable is a necessary condition for the emergence of trust asymmetry. The pathways leading to a high degree of trust asymmetry can be categorized into two types: those dominated by power perception and those involving a combination of multiple factors. Differences in power perception play a crucial role in the occurrence of high trust asymmetry, yet the influence of other conditional variables in triggering trust asymmetry should not be overlooked.

The findings can contribute to advancing the study of trust relationships in the field of Chinese PPP projects. Furthermore, they hold practical value in facilitating the enhancement of trust relationships between the government and the private sector.

This study aims to explore the relation among US audit partners’ characteristics, their career advancement and audit quality.

This study uses data from Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Form AP, Auditor Reporting of Certain Audit Participants, and publicly available online data sources. The hand-collected data on audit partners’ personal characteristics include gender, work experience and educational background. The measures for audit quality include restatements and audit fees.

The authors find that audit partner characteristics matter for the time it takes an individual to reach partnership after completing a bachelor’s degree. There are significant differences in work experience and educational background between partners in the largest (Big N) audit firms and smaller (non-Big N) audit firms. Audit partner traits are related to audit quality, and the effects differ between Big N and non-Big N partners.

The literature has examined audit partners’ career paths using international data. However, little empirical academic research has examined the career advancement of US audit partners. This study provides initial insights on the career advancement of US partners on a large scale and complements the recent research that examines audit partner characteristics and audit quality in the US market.

This paper aims to study the initial trust of the owner to the contractor, establish the initial trust mechanism, explore the factors that affect the initial trust of the owner to the contractor and analyze its influence mechanism. Based on this, it is easy for the owners and contractors to take targeted measures to improve the initial trust, which is conducive to the sustainable development of the project.

On the basis of reading a large amount of literature, this paper constructs the occurrence mechanism of the owner's initial trust to the contractor from the five factors of trust propensity, trust belief, trustee’s characteristics, institution-based trust, trust motivation and from the perspective of the owner using the structural equation model for questionnaire survey and empirical analysis.

The results of this paper show that the institution-based trust, the trustee’s characteristics and the trust belief of the trustor clearly have a positive effect on trust motivation, and the trustee’s characteristics have the most significant effect on the trust motivation. The influence of trust propensity on trust motivation was not significant.

This paper studies the occurrence mechanism of the owner's initial trust in the contractor, discusses its influencing factors and analyzes the influence of these factors on the initial trust, which enriches the theoretical system of initial trust research. The results of this study can help owners and contractors to develop targeted measures to build good initial trust.

The optimal payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects has become the main approach to realize sustainable development of projects. This study is aimed at constructing an effective payment model for the whole life period of projects to achieve win-win among all stakeholders, so as to provide a theoretical reference and managerial implications for the public sector in the whole operation and maintenance period.

In the whole operation and maintenance period of water environment treatment PPP projects, this article investigates how the public sector optimizes the payment in the whole operation and maintenance period of projects. Firstly, the projects' whole operation and maintenance period is divided into several stages according to the performance appraisal period. And then, the multi-stage dynamic programming model is constructed to design the payment construct model for the public sector in each performance appraisal stage. The payment from the public sector is the decision variable, and the deduction from the private sector is a random variable.

The optimal payment model showed that the relatively less objective weight of public sector leaded to its relatively more total payment and vice versa. Therefore, the sustainable development of the projects can only be ensured when the objective weights both of them should be balanced. Additionally, the deduction from the performance appraisal of private sector plays an important role in the model construction. The larger deduction the private sector undertakes, the smaller profits private sector has. Since the deduction at each stage is a random variable, the deduction varies with the different probability distributions obeyed by the practical deduction in each stage.

The findings from this study have provided theoretical and application references, and some managerial implications are also given. First, the improvement of the pricing system of public sector should be accelerated. Second, the reasonable profit of the private sector must be guaranteed. While pursuing the maximization of social benefits, the public sector should make full use of the price sharing mechanism in the market and supervise the real income situation of the private sector. Third is increasing the public to participate in pricing. Additionally, it is a limitation that the deduction is assumed to conform to a uniform distribution in this study. Other probability distributions on deduction can be essentially further sought, so as to be more line with the actual situation of the projects.

The optimal payment in whole operation and maintenance period of the projects has become an important issue, which is a key to project success. This study constructs a multi-stage dynamic programming model to optimize payment in the whole period of projects. Additionally, this study adds its value through deeply developing the new theories of optimal payment to more suitable for the practical problems, so that to optimize the design of payment mechanism. Meanwhile, a valuable reference for public and private sectors is provided to ensure the sustainable development of the projects.

The Public–Private Partnership (PPP) mode has been widely used in the urban water environment treatment project (UWETP). The public is the direct perceiver of urban water environment treatment PPP project (UWETP-PPP), and their satisfaction with it can reflect the project's success to some extent. The purpose of this paper is to provide operational management strategies for special-purpose vehicle (SPV) company through public satisfaction evaluation of UWETP-PPP.

A questionnaire was designed through the literature review and experts' opinions that consisted of 33 indexes to investigate public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP. Then, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to confirm the evaluation index system of public satisfaction. Next, the weights of the indexes were calculated by the normalized mean method and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) was applied to evaluate public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP. Finally, the importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to suggest improvement strategies of public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP.

The factors affecting public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP are preliminarily determined, and an evaluation model that provides a specific basis for evaluating public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP in the future is constructed. Furthermore, some strategies and suggestions to improve the performance level of UWETP-PPP are put forward.

First, the factors influencing public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP are numerous and complex. The factors discussed in this study may be further refined to make the research more reliable and effective. Second, the sample from this study can be expanded to multiple projects, so as to make the study more general. Finally, given that the influencing factors in the paper were elicited by using scores obtained through a questionnaire survey, it would bring bias to the result to some extent. The evaluation method can be further improved, such as combining with interval intuitionistic fuzzy evaluation.

In the context of the characteristics of PPP projects in water environment treatment and the huge demand of the country to apply PPP model in the territory of water environment treatment, this study evaluated the public satisfaction with UWETP-PPP in Xuchang City, China. The result provided a beneficial reference for the private organizations to take appropriate actions to improve the public satisfaction level of UWETP-PPP, so as to improve the performance level of SPV. It also provided a system of public satisfaction evaluation with UWETP-PPP, which can be considered as the standard of public satisfaction survey, thus improving the comprehensiveness of the UWETP-PPP performance evaluation system and the government regulatory capacity, thus affecting the sustainable development of UWETP-PPP.

In addition, the research results provide a useful reference for the public organizations to issue a UWETP-PPP regulation rule, review a UWETP-PPP design plan, and conduct new similar project decision-making. In summary, the study results not only serve as a good reference for the evaluation of public satisfaction of eco-environmental PPP projects, but also have essential application value for improving the service level, performance improvement and operational management of the SPV.

The research results of this paper have certain wide-spread value, and the research framework and research method can be applied to other infrastructure section, such as transportation, stadium et al.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it explores the influencing factors of the government’s trust decision-making in the private sector; second, it explores how these influencing factors affect the government’s trust decisions.

A theoretical model was established, and a questionnaire survey was conducted among 152 professionals. The collected datas were analyzed by the structural equation modeling (SEM) method.

The study identified four critical factors that influence the government’s decision to trust the private sector in public-private-partnership (PPP) projects. All the four factors have a positively correlated impact on the government’s trust decision-making. The structural equation path analysis shows that the most important factor affecting the government’s trust decision-making is the trustee’s (private sector) trustworthy characteristics, and the path coefficient is 0.92. The path coefficients of risk perception and the trustor’s trust tendency are 0.83 and 0.74, respectively. The influence of the legal system environment on government trust decision-making is moderate, with a path coefficient of 0.68.

This paper contributes to the literature in two aspects. First, the factors influencing decision-making to government trust in the private sector in PPP projects have been identified. Second, a comprehensive view of the mechanism of government trust in the private sector in PPP projects has been theorized by the SEM method.