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While a considerable amount of research has been conducted on construction disputes, disputes remain prevalent in the construction industry and have still been a crucial problem in the Turkish construction industry as well. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of different stakeholders on key factors that contribute to construction disputes by adopting a qualitative approach.

The qualitative approach adopted for the study provided gathering in-depth and rich information about the topic. To explore the phenomenon in-depth information, semi-structured interviews were conducted. A total of 38 interviews were conducted among experts and practitioners who engaged in construction disputes.

Content analysis of interview data resulted in the emergence of varying categories relevant to the problems which result in construction disputes. By grouping related themes into main categories, the analysis yielded five major ones: clarity of the contract form, errors in contract documents, payments, changes, delays and not granting extension of time.

The major limitations are having interviewees from one country and results limited to the Turkish construction industry.

The findings provide insight on the factors contributing to construction disputes as perceived by different stakeholders, which should provide guidance to determine the associated risks for dispute occurrence, make effort to mitigate disputes once they happen, take proper precautions for minimizing the effects and after all make a significant contribution in the successful accomplishment of completed construction projects.

The findings of the study contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to construction disputes through a qualitative approach which is limited in the related literature. Although the qualitative exploration only focuses on the Turkish construction industry, the study has added significantly to the body of knowledge within the subject area.

The importance of ethical considerations in the construction industry is acknowledged. This is particularly the case that the industry plays a significant part in a nation’s development. The Zambian construction industry has seen an increase in activity due, in part, to massive infrastructure development programmes adopted by successive governments, increase in foreign direct investment and housing development. The Zambian construction industry, like any other, is not immune to unethical behaviour. This study aims to investigate students’ perception of the prevalence of unethical practices in the Zambian construction industry. A review of literature demonstrated that a number of contextual factors including location can influence the perception of unethical practices. A focus on Zambia was therefore considered necessary.

In total, 121 students took part in a questionnaire survey to examine their perception of the extent to which unethical practices were prevalent in the Zambian construction industry.

The findings suggest that students perceived bribery/corruption and political/societal influences as the two most common unethical practices, while the least prevalent unethical practices were perceived to be alcohol/drug abuse and workplace violence. The findings are largely consistent with previous studies investigating the ethical perception of professionals in the Zambian construction industry. In addition, the findings suggests that when the year and programme of study are taken into consideration, the differences in perception of unethical practices are evident for these demographic groups.

This study provided an added dimension to the understanding of ethical issues in the Zambian construction industry as it was the first of its kind involving students’ perceptions. This paper therefore contributes to the list of countries where similar studies have been undertaken.

Apprenticeship programmes are designed to provide young trainees with essential broad-based skills. Through apprenticeships, different sectors that are underpopulated can fill up their skills gaps. Apprenticeships are particularly useful to the construction sector which has a high ageing workforce and associated lower labour productivity. However, the completion rates of apprenticeship training programmes in the construction sector remain low in several countries across the globe. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review the published research on apprenticeship training that is specifically focused on the construction sector, to determine the current status quo and suggest a direction for future research.

A systematic review approach was adopted. Based on a comprehensive search using SCOPUS databases, 33 relevant journal articles were identified and analysed.

It was found that monitoring and control is the most mentioned factor responsible for improvements in the completion rates of apprenticeship training. In contrast, the length of time required for going through the full training is the most common factor responsible for low completion rates. Three research gaps were identified, among which is the dearth of studies that has focused on apprentices training in developing countries.

The gaps identified in the current knowledge on apprenticeship training would serve as a justification for future investigations. However, the scope of the review is limited to papers published in academic journals and citable through SCOPUS.

The outcomes of the study provide researchers and other relevant stakeholders with a concise report on the findings of previous studies. It also provides insight into strategies for improving the completion rates of apprenticeship training in the construction sector.

A systematic evaluation of the extant literature draws on theoretical evidence and highlights the factors that are more likely to influence the outcomes of apprentice training for craftspeople in the construction sector.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the likelihood of occurrence and degree of impact of the risk factors on construction projects within the Ghanaian construction industry.

A survey of randomly selected samples yielded responses from 34 contractors, 46 consultants, and 23 clients or owners (private and public) within the Ghanaian construction industry. Literature review is used to identify 25 relevant risk variables which were grouped into ten composite factors and then incorporated into the design of the survey instrument. Survey response data were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA), and subsequently the exposure rating levels were determined, which enabled the categorisation of the probability‐impact scores in low, medium and high levels.

Results of this study indicate a disparity of the ranking of the degree of occurrence and impact among the groups. There was a statistical difference at the p<0.05 level significant for five out of 25 risk factors occurrences as follows: “construction methods”, “inflation”, “weather condition”, “ground conditions and contaminant conditions” and “poor communication amongst project team” and only one for the degree of impact scores for “price fluctuation”. Based on the composite risk factors, the financial and economic factors were found to be the most likely to occur and have the most impact on projects, whereas legal risk factor was found to be a low weighted risk, as it had the least likelihood to occur and the least impact score. The post hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test also indicated differences between the contractor and clients in the ranking of construction methods risk variable, but no significant differences between contractors/consultants and clients/consultants.

Geographically, only respondents from construction organisations in the Greater Accra Region were considered, which limits generalization of the findings. The research did not also distinguish foreign from local contractors in the classification, as literature has shown that the perception of the degree of impact and likelihood of occurrence of risk analysis could also vary according to the degree of ownership.

The paper makes a contribution by exploring the degree of risk occurrence and its impact on construction projects within a developing economy and much lesser studied context. The paper provides insights on the perception of risk among construction professions in Ghana and it also provides some insights on the current levels of risk for foreign contractors wishing to operate in Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the views of construction practitioners on the prevalence of ethical misconduct within the invitation to tender and tender evaluation and award stages of construction contracts in Ghana.

Following a critical comparative review of literature resulting in the identification of 18 potential misconducts within the invitation to tender and 11 potential misconducts within the tender evaluation and award stages of construction contracts, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 65 construction professionals. Data obtained from the survey were analysed using both descriptive (i.e. frequencies, mean scores and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (paired t-test), followed by gap analysis.

The findings revealed that corrupt, fraudulent, collusive or coercive practices, client divulging more information to the preferred bidder and inflating tender prices by tenderers in return for kickbacks are key unethical practices prevalent at the invitation to tender stage. Following these key unethical practices, the findings further suggested through gap analysis that submission of bids on non-working days and inadequate time for preparation and submission of tenders were the top two unethical practices that needed serious interventions at this stage. At the tender evaluation and award stage, the findings revealed that interference by influential people in political positions, fake tendering and bid shopping are prevalent. Again, from the gap analysis, interference by influential people in political positions and poor definition of selection criteria were identified to be the two key unethical practices that need urgent intervention at this stage of construction contracts.

This study holds a significant practical implication in the sense that key unethical practices at the invitation to tender and tender evaluation and award stages of construction contracts have been identified, and this provides a suitable basis for stakeholders that spearhead such activities to offer suitable interventions to control such practices.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge as it uncovers ethical misconducts within two important phases of construction contracts in a developing country setting. As there is a continuous effort by the international community towards finding lasting solutions to such misconducts, the findings from this study can be used as a starting point for appropriate policies to be put in place in Ghana to control such misconducts.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and highlight the results of a study that identified critical risks involved in the procurement of community‐based infrastructure projects in Zambia.

Brainstorming was chosen as the method for identifying risks in the study. It was applied in the form of group discussions with project management committees at community level to identify potential risks affecting their particular projects.

The identified critical risks were classified into six categories: project initiation; community contribution and participation; budget and finance; skilled labour; materials procurement and technical supervision; and quality control. Several significant risk factors were identified in all these six categories in community‐based construction projects. The paper concludes that indeed there are critical risks in community‐based construction projects that require forward planning, assessment and mitigation.

The consequences of not assessing and managing construction risks in both conventional and community‐based procurement systems are that projects may experience time and cost overruns and lead to poor quality structures. It is therefore important to identify risks in community projects.

In this chapter, the nature and extent of corruption in the construction industry is considered from a worldwide perspective, but particularly in the context of research conducted in South Africa. The definition of corruption is expanded to include conflict of interest and unethical conduct. Corruption in the construction industry is found to be universal and pervasive, occurring in all areas, at all stages, at all levels, and in all forms. A simple triangular model of corruption is replaced by a more complex four-dimensional risk-based model. The challenge for the construction industry, in combating corruption, will essentially require multilateral action in all four dimensions of the enhanced model: eliminating and reducing opportunities where possible; relieving the pressures to commit corrupt acts; rebutting the rationales and arguments used to excuse corruption; and substantially improving and innovating more forensic methods of detection. While the decision to engage in corruption is risk-based, particularly in terms of the capacity to evade detection; in essence corruption is a cultural and moral issue for society.

The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.

Claims and disputes are often unavoidable in the construction industry due to its unique and complex characteristics involving the massive investment of capital, lengthy project duration, and multiple project stakeholders. This chapter intends to identify the critical construction claims attributes, compare the perceptions of major stakeholders on different claim attributes, and investigate the contrast of the top five claim attributes between this study and previous ones. The literature review resulted in 48 claim attributes responsible for the construction project schedule delays. These attributes were then presented to Vietnam construction industry (VCI) practitioners in the form of a questionnaire survey. Data analysis was done based on the collected 113 qualified samples. Relative importance index (RII) was applied to determine the ranking of claim attributes. The results were that the top five causes of claims, that is, payment delays, mistakes by contractor during construction stage, delays in work progress by the contractor, financial failure of the contractor, and frequently changing requirements by the owner, lead to the schedule delays in VCI. These findings can assist the local industry practitioners and foreign companies seeking a share in the VCI market in understanding the causes of construction claims comprehensively and formulating the countermeasures to minimise their impacts and hence reduce the unnecessary losses and raise the likelihood of success as well as maintain sustainable relationships among stakeholders.

Despite the extensive research on critical success factors (CSFs), there is a paucity of studies that examine CSFs for the deployment of risk assessment and management processes in developing countries, particularly, Africa. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception of construction professionals on CSFs appertaining to the deployment of risk assessment and management practices (RAMP) in Tanzania with the aim of filling the knowledge gap.

The primary data were collected from 67 construction professionals working with clients (private and public), consultants, and contractor organisations (foreign and local) within the Tanzanian construction. Response data was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics with one-way analysis of variance to examine the differences in the perception of the identified CSFs.

The descriptive and empirical analysis demonstrated a disparity of the ranking of the ten CSFs among the groups; however, the differences were not significant. Based on the overall sample, the results of the mean score ranking indicate that “awareness of risk management processes”; “team work and communications”; and “management style” were the three highly ranked CSFs whereas “co-operative culture”; “customer requirement”; and “positive human dynamics” were considered to be the least important.

The study did not differentiate the perceptions of the CSFs according to the ownership (local or foreign), and the sample consisted of organisations in one industry operating in Tanzania. Consequently, the findings may not generalise to other industries or to organisations operating in other countries.

For RAMP to be implemented effectively, Tanzanian constructional-related organisations should consider the identified CSFs as a vehicle for improving project success through reduction of risk uncertainty. Furthermore, regardless of the type of organisation, “management style”, “team work and communication” are necessary for the successful deployment of RAMP.

This study makes a contribution to the body of knowledge on the subject within a previously unexplored context. The study provides insights on the drivers and enablers (CSFs) of risk assessment implementation across the Tanzania construction sector.