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Prefabricated products are continually entering the building construction market; yet, the decision to use prefabricated products in a construction project is based mostly on personal preferences and the evaluation of direct costs. Researchers and practitioners have debated appropriate measurement systems for evaluating the impacts of prefabricated products and for comparing them with conventional on-site construction practices. The more advanced, cost–benefit approach to evaluating prefabricated products often inspires controversy because it may generate inaccurate results when converting non-monetary effects into costs. As prefabrication may affect multiple organisations and product subsystems, the method used to decide on production methods should consider multiple direct and indirect impacts, including nonmonetary ones. Thus, this study aims to develop a multi-criteria method to evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabrication solutions to facilitate decision-making on whether to use prefabricated products.

Drawing upon a literature review, this research suggests a multi-criteria method that combines the choosing-by-advantage approach with a cost–benefit analysis. The method was presented for validation in focus group discussions and tested in a case involving a prefabricated bathroom.

The analysis indicates that the method helps a project’s stakeholders communicate about the relative merits of prefabrication and conventional construction while facilitating the final decision of whether to use prefabrication.

This research contributes a method of evaluating the monetary and non-monetary impacts of prefabricated products. The research underlines the need to evaluate the diverse benefits and sacrifices that stakeholder face when considering production methods in construction.

Systemic innovations emerge and create value in an inter-organisational context. However, innovation studies rarely investigate the role of value creation and value capture among multiple organisations in successful innovation implementation. This paper aims to understand the role of value creation and value capture in the implementation of systemic innovations in construction which is by nature, an inter-organisational context.

The empirical research focused on the barriers, enablers and opportunities for value creation and value capture of the Finnish construction project parties when trying to implement mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) prefabrication, which is a systemic innovation. Data were collected through interviews, observations and action workshops.

The empirical study identified interaction patterns on how social, political, technical and economic barriers lead to uneven value capturing, lack of value-based procurement and unclear value creation between MEP design and installation. They hinder the implementation of MEP prefabrication. The results point to enablers leading to fairly shared value to all parties, procurement of value and collaborative value creation, thus increasing the usage of MEP prefabrication, a systemic innovation.

The study adds new knowledge by demonstrating that the identification of barriers and their interaction with enablers and opportunities for value creation and capture lay a baseline for suggestions on how to implement a systemic innovation. This study stresses the importance of enabling value creation and capture for all construction project parties when implementing a systemic innovation.

Multisided platforms (MSPs) have become omnipresent. Millennial consumers have taken well to MSPs. It has become imperative to explicate the process of adoption of MSPs by millennials. The purpose of this study is to comprehend the factors that lead to the adoption of MSPs by millennials beyond the factors identified in the technology acceptance model (TAM).

Data was collected from 252 respondents through a structured survey questionnaire to comprehend MSP adoption. Partial least squares structured equation modelling was applied for analysis.

The theoretical lens of TAM was applied for the study. Results indicated that over and above TAM, millennials’ intention to use of MSPs was moderated by ethical expectations, as well as ethnocentric thinking. The study, thus, extended TAM theoretical conversation by including factors of consumer ethnocentric behaviour and customer ethical considerations.

This study modifies the TAM factors theoretically by including two new factors, namely, customers’ ethical expectations and ethnocentric thinking.

This study results would help MSP firm managers comprehend the importance of consideration of consumer ethnocentric behaviour and customer ethical considerations. Thus, managers have to include in their MSPs’ aspects of customers’ ethical expectations and ethnocentric thinking while marketing their MSPs’ while doing business with millennials.

This was one of the first studies that extended TAM by adding the factors of ethical expectations and ethnocentric thinking in the context of MSP adoption for millennial customers.

Nations are opening their “digital borders” to allow the free movement of business, employment and skills. However, this process of digitalization is fraught with challenges. This study aims to identify these challenges to build a solution-oriented framework for smart nations.

This study conducted a systematic literature review, analyzing 69 peer-reviewed academic papers out of 5,958 identified papers.

The identified challenges for smart nation building were categorized as follows: people and society, technology and innovation, digital infrastructure, politics, governance, economics and business and sustainability. To overcome these challenges, this study highlights the need for a holistic national approach, which includes solutions such as improving education, technology-driven innovations, investments for building smart nation infrastructure, top political leadership involvement, national vision and action plan, national regulatory frameworks, business environment and job creation, stakeholder engagement, renewable energy use and technological integration – all of which are key for sustainable development.

This study provides directions for building a smart nation framework, but the literature review results are confined to articles, conference papers and book chapters. This study could be further enriched if the findings are cross-checked with experts. This limitation will be addressed in future research.

Given the dearth of literature on this nascent concept, the insights from this study can guide policymakers and industry leaders involved in smart nation building and benefit researchers engaged in theoretical development.

Nations around the globe are moving from digital transformation toward the realization of a digital nation, but they are facing challenges in the process. This study aims to build a digital nation framework by identifying these challenges and developing solutions.

A systematic literature review process was followed, which included the development of a review protocol, selection of research papers, data extraction and analysis of results. In total, 41 research papers were selected from the 12,624 peer-reviewed academic and research papers initially identified.

Several challenges associated with the elements of a digital nation, including people, technology, institutions, policy, economics and sustainability, are identified; and solutions to these problems are presented. This study's primary objective is to build a digital nation framework by analyzing these challenges and finding solutions to them.

The study provides direction for building a digital nation framework, but the literature review findings are limited to journals, conference papers and government publications. Moreover, it would have been helpful if the research findings had been crosschecked with a panel of experts. This study will correct this weakness in later research.

This study provides policymakers and leaders with a guide for building a digital nation. This study also provides direction for researchers working in this field as little relevant research is currently available.

This study analyses the existing literature on the challenges surrounding digital nations and gives direction to theory building for future studies.

In the community of visual tracking or object tracking, discriminatively learned correlation filter (DCF) has gained more importance. When it comes to speed, DCF gives the best performance. The purpose of this study is to anticipate the object visually. For tracking the object visually, the authors proposed a new model based on the convolutional regression technique. Features like HOG and Harris are used for the process of feature extraction. The authors’ proposed method will give the best results when compared with other existing methods.

The visual tracking of many real-world applications such as robotics, smart monitoring systems, independent driving and human-computer interactions are a major and current research problem in the field of computer vision. This refers to the automated trajectory prediction of an arbitrary target object, often given in the first frame in a bounding box while moving about in successive video frames. In the community of visual tracking or object tracking, DCF has gained more importance. Discriminative trackers strive to train a classifier that differentiates the target item from the background. The fundamental concept is to train a correlation filter that creates high responses around the target and low responses elsewhere. For tracking the object visually, the authors proposed a new model based on the convolutional regression technique. Features like HOG and Harris are used for the process of feature extraction. Through experimental analysis, the authors have evaluated several performance assessment metrics such as accuracy, precision, F-measure and specificity. The authors’ proposed method will give the best results when compared with other existing methods.

This process involved DCF which gained more importance. When it comes to speed, DCF gives the best performance. The main objective of this study is to anticipate the object visually. For tracking the object visually, the authors proposed a new model based on the convolutional regression technique for tracking the objects and these results will be used for identifying the action of the object.

The main theme exists in the process is to identify the tracking motion of the object by using convolution regression with varied features. This method proves that it will provide better results when compared to state of art methods.

The work on bridge resilience assessment includes quantitative and qualitative approaches to compare the multiple bridges based on their resilience. But still, the bridge resilience obtained by these assessment approaches is inefficient when prioritising multiple bridges to improve their resilience. Therefore, this study aims to develop a methodology for prioritising the bridges to improve their resilience.

The research methodology follows three sequential phases. In the first phase, criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC) technique is used to compute the criteria weights. The criteria considered are age, area, design high flood level, finish road level FRL and resilience index of bridges. While 12 river-crossing bridges maintained by one bridge owner are considered as alternatives. Then, in the second phase, the prioritisation of each bridge is evaluated using five techniques, including technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, VIKOR (in Serbian, Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje), additive ratio assessment, complex proportional assessment and multi-objective optimisation method by ratio analysis. Finally, in the third phase, the results of all five techniques are integrated using CRITIC and the weighted sum method.

The result of the study enables bridge owners to deal with the particular bridge that requires resilience improvement. The study concluded that it is not enough to consider only the bridge resilience index to improve its resilience. The prioritisation exercise should consider various other criteria that are not preferred during the bridge resilience assessment process.

The proposed methodology is a novel framework based on the existing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques for contributing knowledge in the domain of bridge resilience management. It can efficiently overcome the pitfall of decision-making when two bridges have the same resilience index score.

Since the last decade, urban heritage tourism has picked up pace in India, specifically through the proliferation of heritage walks. Diversified in their modes of exploration and themes, these walks contribute towards increased awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage. As society reels under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and socio-political problems, heritage walks can become a tool to address issues within the restructured tourism practices. Discussions on sustainable heritage practices in Europe foreground the role that heritage walks play in promoting resilience, responsibility and a sense of shared heritage through the active engagement of various stakeholders. It follows that the digital space offers new opportunities for a more participatory cultural consumption model. Taking cues from Europe and Germany in particular, this study discusses innovative possibilities for inclusive urban heritage tourism practices that integrate urban regeneration, heritage sustainability and community well-being.

Mangroves constitute an important ecosystem because of their global extent and high productivity. These plants thrive in the intertidal zones of the tropics and subtropics that are characterized by regular tidal inundation and fluctuating salinity. Mangrove species are well adapted, both morphologically and physiologically, to survive under saline conditions, but in hypersaline environment their growth is reduced. The present chapter is a critical analysis on the impact of salinity on the growth of a common mangrove species (Hertiera fomes). The analysis has been carried out in the framework of Indian Sundarbans, which has contrasting salinity profiles in different segments owing to barrage discharge and siltation phenomena. Analysis of the decadal profile of salinity indicates a gradual lowering in the western Indian Sundarbans due to Farrakka barrage discharge and run-off from catchments. The central sector, however, exhibits a contrasting picture of increment of aquatic salinity through time, mainly due to disconnection of the Bidyadhari River with the Ganga–Bhagrirathi–Hooghly River system (in the western part). This has made the Matla River in the central Indian Sundarbans hypersaline in nature (that used to get water from the Bidyadhari River) finally leading to an insecure ecological condition for the growth and survival of mangroves. The possible remedial measures to combat the situation have also been listed considering the ecological framework of the study zone.

Farmers producer organisations (FPOs) play the most crucial role in the agriculture supply chain system, aiming to redress the balance between farming and marketing activities of agricultural produce. The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of FPOs using data envelopment analysis (usually referred to as DEA) on 34 FPO units selected from the state of Rajasthan.

One of the most commonly used techniques to examine business performance is the application of DEA. The application of DEA requires the selection of inputs and outputs. This study takes three inputs and three outputs based on the insights drawn from the field survey. While the input variables consist of total assets, paid-up capital and the number of economic activities, the three output variables are turnover, net profit and number of members benefitted. Broadly, these variables encapsulate the operational performance of the business units.

This study’s findings reveal that the estimated relative efficiency score of the input-oriented CCR (Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes) model ranges from 0.06 to 1. Interestingly, only one FPO has reported a relative efficiency (RE) score of one, whereas the remaining FPOs fall below the efficiency frontier. However, 15 FPOs report an RE score of one in the output-oriented CCR approach. Considering the estimates obtained in the input- and output-oriented BCC (Banker, Charnes and Cooper) models, this study found that about 20% of the FPOs report an efficiency score greater than 0.80. Moreover, three FPOs are on the frontier line. An examination of the scale efficiency score in the input-oriented model, 45% of the FPOs have an efficiency score greater than 0.80, whereas almost all FPOs achieve a scale efficiency score greater than 0.80 in the output-oriented model. Overall, the results imply that the FPOs should place greater emphasis on the efficient utilisation of the inputs to enhance the overall business performance and productivity.

The findings of this study provide vital insights into the specific inputs and outputs that determine the performance efficiency of FPOs and identify the potential areas for improving the existing inefficient FPOs.

This study contributes to the repository of the existing empirical studies in three distinct ways. First, the authors hardly found any previous studies that quantitatively assess the business performance of FPOs using the DEA technique. Second, the effort to identify the slacks associated with each input and output variable in input- and output-oriented models gives insights on improvable areas for inefficient FPOs. Third, the authors attempt to demystify the empirical obfuscations by highlighting the major challenges FPOs face in the state of Rajasthan.