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This paper reports the outcomes of the first of three planned questionnaire surveys in the first phase of a broader Hong Kong based study on ‘Joint Risk Management’ (JRM). The survey compared perceptions on both present and preferred risk allocation, including JRM, in construction contracts. Data was mainly collected in Hong Kong and mainland China (with most respondents having working experience from Hong Kong) from various professionals and practitioners representing broad groups of academics, consultants, contractors and owners (clients). Survey results reinforce previous observations (in Canada) of the divergences in perceptions on both present and preferred risk allocation, both within and between different contracting parties. The present study reveals quite wide (marked) divergencies with many individual cases of diametrically opposing views on allocating particular risks within specific groups. Despite such divergencies, respondents professed a general enthusiasm towards JRM, irrespective of their contractual or professional affiliation. Moreover, they generally preferred to assign reduced risks from either one or both contracting parties to JRM, rather than shifting more risks to the other party. This is indicative of a perceived trend towards more collaborative and teamwork based working environments.

This paper targets the development of comprehensive approaches to prequalifying teams for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Research outcomes from a study into “relationally integrated project teams” (RIPTs) were applied to necessarily longer‐term PPP scenarios. A force field model was developed to visualise the importance of stronger relational forces between the many PPP participants for “sustainable RIPTs” (SRITs). A framework was conceptualised to show linkages from relational contracting approaches, through sustainable relationships to sustainable infrastructure. This framework and a basic model for evaluating relational performance, were assessed by a panel of international PPP experts.

The results encouraged the collection of factors facilitating successful relationships to build the proposed knowledge base. Literature review and initial interviews provide examples of priorities and lessons learned in relationship building in ongoing PPPs.

Being an integrative theory‐building type exercise bringing together relational contracting, teambuilding and PPP performance research streams, this paper summarises and refers to, rather than provides details of, feeder research. Fleshing out the conceptual framework and model will next proceed beyond the initial testing and sample knowledge elements conveyed herein.

Selecting good teams is essential for successful projects, and more so for PPP projects, given their complexities and longer timeframes. Increasing reliance on PPPs for infrastructure development and asset management enhances this significance.

Synergies are derived from linking relationship‐building and sustainability thrusts in the context of PPP performance. Concepts of “sustainable relationships” and “sustainsivity” (sensitivity to sustainability issues) are introduced.

Project failure is the result of one or a combination of several causes of risk factors that are very important to identify for effective performance. This study aims to focus on studying the fundamental relationship between internal risk factors and the negative effect on oil and gas project success in Yemen using the partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method.

Data collection was carried out using a formal questionnaire survey of the oil field sector in Yemen by companies involved in mega-oil and gas construction projects. A hierarchical model for determining causative internal risk factors and their effects was developed and evaluated using SEM method by SmartPLS3 software technology.

The findings of analyzing model indicate that all categories have a significant effect on project success, while the most significant affected categories in the internal risk factors are project management factors, feasibility study-design and resources-material supply with a path coefficient value of 0.213, 0.197 and 0.186, respectively. Moreover, for the hypotheses test, the positive relationship means that all experimental hypotheses are accepted according to path coefficient value analysis. In addition, the internal risk factors research model shows the ranking of effects on project success starting with project stoppage (loading factor 0.841), cost overruns (loading factor 0.818), time overruns (loading factor 0.726) and project target failure with loading factor 0.539.

The research was limited to the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.

Interpreting the relationship between internal risk factors and their impact on the success of construction projects in the oil and gas sector will assist project team and oil companies in developing risk response strategies and developing appropriate plans to mitigate the effects of risks, which is presented in this paper.

The paper explains the relationship between cause and effect of internal risk factors in oil and gas projects in Yemen, and is expected to be a guideline for the oil companies and future academic research in the risk management area.

The purpose of this paper is to rank critical risks and determine major categories of risks to be considered by public–private partnerships (PPPs) investors when investing in “smart” transportation infrastructure. Such investment is sorely needed in many mega cities around the world currently suffering from serious impacts of traffic congestion, pollution and lack of usability of transport systems.

The study used literature review focused upon smart transportation infrastructure projects financed by PPP arrangements to create a questionnaire which was refined by subject matter experts and then completed by 126 experienced respondents. Exploratory factor analysis was used to create major categories emerging from the collected data. Interviews with ten experts were used to validate the findings.

The most highly major ranked risks shared by these participants were lack of expertise in complex project implementation, political interference, lack of PPP project data and lack of a collaboration mechanism between government and private sectors. Factor analysis showed that in terms of risk likelihood, stakeholder engagement, implementation process issues, the natural environment, data-sharing and technology complexity emerged. In terms of risk impact, major factors were stakeholder engagement, trust versus resistance issues, the natural environment and factors concerning uncertainty.

This paper addresses a somewhat unexplored area, the risks involved in investing in PPP smart transportation infrastructure. Such infrastructure projects are embedded in their environments, and approaches using a complexity lens can emerge overriding risk concerns for investors when undertaking such projects.

This study conceptualizes the equity gap (EG) in construction contracting and examines its impact on project performance.

The identification of EG was first summarized from a literature review. A conceptual framework that included EG elements of information, risks, expected return and power asymmetry was then proposed. A study of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge supported the existence of EG. The framework was further refined by incorporation of 21 EG identifications. To examine the reliability of the framework, data were collected from 106 senior project professionals to evaluate the extent to which EG identification occurred in their projects. A Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM hereafter) analysis was conducted on the collected data.

The proposed framework was deemed statistically significant. Furthermore, no significant differences were detected between the developer and contractor. The concepts of asset and process specificities suggested that the unaddressed EG may be met with retaliatory behaviors, such as noncooperation, procrastination, opportunism and withdrawal, as the physical works proceed. These behaviors may also hamper project performance.

To address the EG ex post, it is suggested that relational incentives to balance the power differential be set, reallocation of risks and return and enhancing task programmability for ease of monitoring and performance evaluation.

This study investigates the downside of the EG between the contracting parties. The proposed EG framework informs the project management of critical EG elements and possible methods to narrow the gap ex post. Practical suggestions are also provided to manage construction contracts in general and in the use of incentive schemes to address EG.

Greening existing buildings (GEB) considerably improves energy efficiency of old buildings, along with other benefits, but it is not widely practiced. As a part of a wider study, this paper aims to evaluate the perception of building dwellers/owners on the challenges and motivators to GEB in Brunei Darussalam.

A structured questionnaire survey collected 109 responses from building owners/dwellers. Cronbach's alpha tested the reliability of the data collected. One-sample t-test examined if sample means are consistent with population means. ANOVA examined if different respondent groups significantly agreed on the importance levels of individual factors. Moreover, factor analysis narrowed down the long list of factors in to a smaller number of components.

A set of 30 challenges and 19 motivators of GEB was identified. “Lack of a GEB infrastructure” was identified as the collective key challenge, leading dwellers to recognize lack of support and knowledge and develop wrong perception on GEB. However, “framework of supports,” as a summative motivator, improves knowledge and awareness on GEB, which allows recognizing other benefits and developing a momentum of practicing GEB. Factor analysis suggested a consolidated approach for challenges through six interrelated components, but for motivators to focus on somewhat four independent areas.

House/building dweller/owners' decision is the key to undertake GEB. This study, apparently for the first time, contributes to identifying the challenges and motivators that influence their decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the perception of a contractor on early contractor involvement (ECI) type of construction project delivery approach in terms of its benefits and drawbacks.

A questionnaire survey was conducted on various professionals of a contractor, who had extensive experience of working in ECI.

The ECI approach increases the opportunity for better relationships among the parties, which assist the design process from contractor's input and eventually lead to successful delivery of the project. On the other hand, unequal commitment and lack of win‐win attitude between the parties are seen as the most important drawbacks that hinder integration in ECI approach. It is also observed that benefits from ECI are likely to outweigh the drawbacks.

Construction projects are different, requiring adjustments, even within generic procurement or delivery approaches, in order to build a harmonious team, to allow project participants to work together and deliver an improved project. This study contributes to devising and demonstrating such a strategy, focusing on ECI approach.

Uncertainty of eventual outcomes coupled with a reluctance to embark upon potentially long learning curves, have militated against much‐needed holistic innovations in our instant‐results‐oriented construction industry. While sporadic initiatives towards new organizational and/or contractual arrangements have enabled incremental improvements in some scenarios, the increasing demand for step gains in construction industry performance levels evidently envisages a more solid launching pad with re‐engineered paradigmatic foundations. Initial investigations suggest that the foregoing desired goals may be achieved together. Finally, a conceptual model that coherently synergises these strategies for institutional and industry development is presented and discussed.

In a public-private partnership (PPP), the private sector is represented by a company termed the special purpose vehicle (SPV), which combines different stakeholders including designers, contractors and service providers under one umbrella. Correct SPV team selection is critical to ensure PPP success as the SPV must act as an integrated entity. In fact, unless the SPV takes an active role in developing trust and promoting integration principles, segmentation of interests, highly adversarial atmospheres, loss of value and economic inefficiency will prevail. Absence of awareness of such principles among stakeholders and the scarcity of literature investigating SPV stakeholder integration create great risks that jeopardize project success. Accordingly, to mitigate the aforementioned risks and provide stakeholders with both the knowledge and the tools to instigate and maintain integration, this paper aims to develop and test a framework to measure SPV stakeholder integration, inspired by the correlation between integrated project delivery (IPD) and SPV operations.

Following a design science research approach, a structured review is conducted to develop the SPV integration metrics and framework. The framework is then validated through face validation by a panel of industry and academic experts to assess its applicability in measuring SPV integration. Finally, the framework is tested on a well-recognized international PPP project to measure the SPV integration level, and the outcomes are discussed and analyzed.

The framework was able to assess the integration level of the studied SPV highlighting several areas of low-integration settings and providing guidance for achieving better integration.

This research is the first that develops a model to investigate the SPV’s integration level, from a holistic IPD perspective, to enable successful relationship management and enhance collaboration success. This study inspires practical recommendations for PPP practitioners to reduce the risks of segregated SPVs and their contribution to PPP failure.

Rising human aspirations leading to rapid urbanisation, amidst climate changes and other environmental pressures have aggravated the needs for better-focused sustainable urban development in general as well as for smart and sustainable cities in particular. Indeed, smart infrastructure (SI) development is a prerequisite for smart cities (SCs). However, inadequate funding and expertise for such SI development pose profound challenges that may be partially addressed by mobilising private finance and efficiencies through collaborative public–private partnership (PPP) models. This paper provides a holistic review and analysis of the relevant literature, as a basis for proposing such PPP models for developing SI.

A systematic literature review helped to fulfil the aim of this paper in the first phase of the underlying longer-term study. Authoritative search engines like Scopus and Web of Science indexed articles were reviewed and analysed, 85% of these being journal articles.

SCs that necessarily include SI are important in overcoming current urban challenges in developing and developed countries. Given shortfalls in traditional procurement and funding models, special PPP models are required for SI development. After identifying the relevant needs, drivers, barriers and challenges in different countries, a general indicative framework is developed to illustrate how the various interacting force fields can be harnessed to develop the envisaged PPP models that can complement non-PPP procurement models.

PPP for SI development is a relatively new, hence, under-researched topic. This desktop review and analysis provide a useful launching pad for the development of SI through overcoming the potential challenges in traditional procurement and financial models.