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Construction material management plays a significant role in achieving successful project delivery of a construction project. However, ineffective material management is a critical issue in the construction industry, especially in developing economies, of which Sri Lanka is not an exception. Therefore, this study aims to focus on exploring the causes of ineffective material management practices in civil engineering construction projects in Sri Lanka and their impact on successful project delivery.

Furthermore, the literature findings were validated through the preliminary survey. Subsequently, a quantitative research approach was adopted to pursue the research aim. Questionnaire responses were obtained from 215 construction professionals in civil engineering projects who were selected using the judgemental and snowball sampling techniques. Collected data were analysed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) V26 and Microsoft Excel 2016.

Moreover, the study revealed that material price fluctuation, shortage of material in the market, delay in material procurement, inadequate planning and delays in material delivery are the most frequent causes of ineffective material management in civil engineering projects. In addition, it was evidenced that most ineffective material management practices cause both time and cost overruns in civil engineering construction projects. Most respondents emphasized inadequate planning, inadequate qualified and experienced staff, lack of supervision and lack of leadership as the causes for both time and cost overruns.

The study was concluded by proposing strategies for effective material management. Education/training/enlightenment of staff in charge of materials management, use of software like Microsoft Project, Primavera and similar software to eliminate manual errors in material management, and providing clear specifications to suppliers were the most agreed strategies for effective material management in civil engineering construction projects.

This paper aims to assess the level of awareness of quantity surveyors in material management and their key roles in waste minimization during the post-contract stage of the project with a view of achieving value for money in their roles.

This involves administering a questionnaire survey to registered members of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, the only recognized professional body of quantity surveyors in Nigeria, within Lagos state. The empirical questionnaire survey succeeds a literature review that isolates the key strategies used by quantity surveyors in material management and waste minimization at the post-contract stage. The validity of the questionnaire was carried out by two experienced construction industry researchers and three experienced professional quantity surveyors to ensure that the questionnaire was not ambiguous and that it consists of the right questions in tandem with the research. The respondents were grouped into consultant’s QS and contractor’s QS.

Key roles of quantity surveyors during the material management process are proper material storage, and material inventory and accounting are the most important material management and waste minimization practices during the institute stage. It revealed that there is a lack of material waste documentation practices during the construction stage. In addition, there is no statistically significant difference in the responses of the two groups. This may be because there is no clear compartmentalization between the practices of the two groups. In addition, these two groups had the same education training, as there is no difference between the educational training of the consultant’s QS and contractor’s QS.

This study assessed the quantity surveyors’ roles with regard to material management and waste minimization. It would add to the scanty research work in this area. The study has also successfully revealed the strategies that are to be adopted by the quantity surveyors to achieve value for money during the post-contract stage.

Construction material management is an important process in supporting construction operations that affect project performance. Previous studies attempt to identify factors influencing material management in different stages such as procurement, transportation and utilization. However, they lack a model to explain the relationship between influential factors and the effectiveness of material management. Therefore, this study aims to validate the variables and key factors influencing the effectiveness of material management processes.

A total of 42 variables were reviewed from literature in different stages of material management process. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data about participants' perceptions on these variables. The respondents were 200 project engineers and project managers from construction sites and offices in Vietnam. Then factor analysis techniques were undertaken to validate the structure of factor groups. Two methods of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were, respectively, performed to evaluate and verify the model's fit.

Factors influencing the effectiveness of material management were grouped into nine main factors, which are procurement issues, site conditions, planning and handling on site, industrial environments, contractual issues, quality control, suppliers and manufacturers' issues, transportation in and out site and security on site.

The paper has several implications for theory and methodology related to material management. It features influential factors in association with the material management effectiveness. Therefore, senior managers can more fully understand the errors in their works and propose timely solutions to limit the unwanted risks.

This research contributes on theoretical development on factors influencing effectiveness of material management processes. The key findings on influential factors can be applied to measure the effectiveness of material management processes.

A significant amount of work has been performed in the area of identification of factors affecting construction productivity. Previous studies have tried to determine the most important factors affecting construction productivity in different countries for a long time. As a result of continuous effort in this direction, researchers have identified a wide range of factors. While the subject area has matured, no general agreement could be made on the factors affecting construction productivity. To fill this gap, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive systematic review of mainstream studies on factors affecting construction productivity published in the last 30 years (1986–2016).

A total of 46 articles from different sources such as journals, conference proceedings, dissertation and PhD theses were identified and thoroughly reviewed.

Gaps in research and practices are discussed and directions for future research have been proposed. The literature review indicates that despite noticeable differences in the socio-economic conditions across both developed countries and developing countries, an overall reasonable consensus exists on few significant factors impeding productivity. These are, namely, non-availability of materials, inadequate supervision, skill shortage, lack of proper tools and equipment and incomplete drawing and specifications. Nevertheless, implications of technology, site amenities, process studies, project culture, and impacts of physiological and psychological factors were not adequately covered in existing literature. The study also found that traditional construction projects have remained the main focus of these studies while green construction projects have been generally overlooked.

The review does not include studies that report productivity at the organisational or industry level as well as total factor productivity. The scope of the review is limited to work on identification of factors affecting productivity at the activity level in construction projects.

The outcomes of this study would help researchers and practitioners by providing the findings of previous studies in a concise manner. It is also expected that presenting a deeper and wider perspective of the research work performed until now will direct a more focussed approach on productivity improvement efforts in the construction industry.

This review paper undertakes a comprehensive systematic review of studies on identification of factors affecting construction productivity published during the last three decades.

Disruptive technologies can significantly contribute to the sustainability of operations in the petroleum supply chain. The present study aims to identify the prime sustainable dimensions and disruptive technologies implementation in the supply chain of the petroleum industry. The authors used content analysis in the literature and experts input to explore the sustainable dimensions and disruptive technologies in the supply chain.

This study used a hybrid method of hesitant fuzzy set and regret theory to identify the prominent sustainability dimensions and prominent disruptive technologies. This method emphasizes the decision-makers psychological characteristics under uncertain environments.

The result indicates that social responsibility, labor practices, safety and technical standards hold the most prominent sustainable dimensions in the petroleum supply chain. Further, the result also depicts that when consider an equal degree of regret and rejoice, artificial intelligence and big data could significantly enhance operations sustainability in the petroleum industry.

This study considers only 11 sustainable dimensions and 43 sustainable factors, whereas other dimensions and factors could also be considered in future research. The research uses hesitant fussy set and regret set theory to identify the prominent sustainable dimensions and disruptive technologies, whereas other multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques can also be used.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to explore the sustainable dimensions (environmental, social and economic) and disruptive technologies in the supply chain of the petroleum industry. This research intended to guide the practitioners, policymakers and academicians to emphasize their effort toward sustainable operations supply chain management.

Research has found that the implementation of learning‐based systems development is a complex issue since it requires the input of employees at all levels of an organization. Successful implementation is a challenge for organizations as the basic training and education offered by them and the particular experiences of the individuals on their own and other factors such as fear and ignorance prevent such actions. For this purpose, the addition of other elements is also required. This research aims to identify and explain the usage of the elements that can encourage employees to contribute the inputs necessary for learning‐based systems development.

To achieve this aim, this research developed a conceptual framework based on the concepts of meta‐abilities and tacit knowledge externalization and sharing. To illustrate the application of the framework in a real life setting, a case study approach that involved a large manufacturing organization in Malaysia was employed.

The processes undertaken in the novel conceptual framework of this research should ensure that organizational information systems are subject to continual re‐examination and modification. By internalizing a system's operations, individuals can improve actions by acquiring better knowledge and understanding, which is the learning process. It was concluded that the future focus for the management of information in organizational learning should be towards the development of an individual's meta‐abilities and creating a suitable organizational culture and infrastructure such that knowledge sharing is promoted.

Generally, this paper offers a contribution by illustrating the application of a conceptual framework in a practical situation; thereby demonstrating a theoretical and practical understanding of the integration of staff members into the IS development process.

Industrialized construction (IC) has been recognized as a game-changing approach in Hong Kong (HK). However, the increasing risks of disruptions in IC supply chains (SCs) raise SC vulnerability levels, prompting attention to developing supply chain resilience (SCR). Since SCR is only attainable through overcoming critical supply chain vulnerabilities (CSCV) with enhanced SC capabilities, this study first aimed to determine the most CSCV of ICSCs by addressing this current research gap and practical need.

Drawing on SCV factors identified from a precursor literature review, an empirical study of IC in HK was conducted using a questionnaire survey and interviews with industry experts. Focussed significance analysis of the data collected through questionnaire survey enabled the selection of 26 CSCV as appropriate to IC. Next, factor analysis was conducted, enabling the grouping of these CSCV under five components. The results were verified and reinforced by interview findings.

The results revealed 26 CSCV pertinent to resilient ICSCs in HK with five underlying components: economic, technological, procedural, organizational and production-based vulnerabilities. Loss of skilled labour is the most critical vulnerability, whereas organizational SCV is the most critical component identified.

Findings of this study would motivate IC project professionals to appreciate and address the CSCV in the context of five components and thereby develop adequate specific capabilities to successfully withstand these CSCV. This should trigger future studies to map CSCV with appropriate capabilities in developing an envisaged powerful assessment model for evaluating the SCR in IC in HK.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rationale for the failure of management and auditors to identify material internal control weaknesses (ICWs) in their initial Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) 404 reviews, resulting in subsequent restatement of their opinions.

The paper focuses on the factors associated with the failure of management and auditor to identify material internal controls weaknesses in their initial SOX 404 reports. Logistic regression is run on a sample of 56 firms that reported material internal controls weaknesses in their amended internal control reports and a control group of 344 firms that reported material internal controls weaknesses (i.e. ineffective internal controls) in their initial internal control reports for 2004.

The results show that firm size, the use of a Big 4 auditor, the ratio of non‐audit to total fees, and the need for accounting restatements are positively associated with the probability to file an amended internal control report. The number of ICWs and the number of audit committee meetings are negatively associated with the probability to file an amended internal control report.

The paper's findings suggest that regulators and corporate boards should consider providing more guidelines on audit committee practices in addition to the audit committee structure. For example, more guidance by the board is needed to ensure that the audit committee is active in overseeing the company's auditor–client relationship and its internal audit function.

Empirical findings on factors associated with the failure of management and auditor to identify material ICWs in their SOX 404 review can contribute to an understanding of factors affecting the efficiency of the SOX 404 review by attributing such failure to either inherent factors such as operational complexity and industry membership or to managerial choices in auditor‐client relationship and corporate governance issues. An understanding of these factors can help companies and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission in their efforts to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of the current SOX 404 process.

In preparing company financial statements, management is required to evaluate internal controls and disclose any material weaknesses in the internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) report. This study aims to examine how the tone of the details management provides to describe a material weakness in its ICFR report impacts investors’ perceptions of the severity of the material weakness and the desirability of the company as a potential investment.

This study uses an experimental design that manipulates whether the company’s ICFR report includes a negatively-toned detail to describe a material weakness disclosed in the report. Participants read the report and answer questions concerning their perceptions of the desirability of the company as an investment and the severity of the material weakness.

This study finds that using negatively-toned details to describe a material weakness, as opposed to an absence of those details, decreases investment desirability due to an increase in the perceived severity and number of distinct problems in ICFR.

This study extends prior research by showing that the tone of details used to describe a material weakness, not just the quantity of details, impacts investors’ decision-making. This study shows that management can carefully construct their ICFR report to avoid tone and potentially mitigate the negative effect of disclosing ineffective ICFR.

This paper aims to investigate whether the stock market reacts to presentation options available to auditors under AS 2 (providing separate financial statement audit and internal control over financial reporting [ICOFR] audit reports, or presenting a combined report with both audit opinions).

Drawing on psychology theory, the authors hypothesize that presenting material weaknesses in ICOFR with an unqualified financial statement audit in a combined report effectively dilutes the weight placed on the material weaknesses perceived by investors. The authors further hypothesize the presentation format effect to vary by type of material weaknesses since some material weaknesses are considered more serious than others. The authors examine ICOFR and audit reporting and cumulative abnormal return data from 2007 to 2017 using two-stage least squares regression analysis.

The results show that a combined report of ineffective ICOFR and unqualified financial statement audit reduces the negative impact of material weakness disclosures on stock price reactions, but only when the weaknesses involve more serious entity-wide controls, as opposed to controls over specific accounts.

The findings help inform preparers, auditors, regulators and investors about the potentially unintended consequences of reporting format choice.

The findings contribute to the literature on internal control disclosures by demonstrating that market reactions to these disclosures depend not only on the types of material weaknesses disclosed but also on their presentation format.