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The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the performance of the construction sector in Turkey and selected European Union (EU) countries using input‐output (IO) tables for the years 1998 and 2002.

IO tables are used to analyze and compare the construction sector. First the input‐output analysis and the construction sector are briefly introduced. Then, the data and methodology are specified. A set of indicators obtained from the data is used for the comparative analysis.

The construction sector of the selected 13 countries is examined in terms of Gross National Product (GNP) and National Income (NI) shares; direct and total construction backward and forward linkage indicators and direct and total construction inputs from manufacturing and services reflecting the technologies used in construction. The key findings are pointed out in the conclusion.

The lack of data from Turkey relating to recent years and incompatibility of new and old data limit this study's scope to the two years.

The concept of using IO analysis for comparing the construction sector has been around for a considerable period of time. This paper has an importance for comparing the construction sector in Turkey and some selected EU countries, being the first study in that field in Turkey, and is therefore of direct importance for the Turkish construction sector.

Carbon dioxide emission is one of the key causes of global warming and climate change. This study investigates the effects of domestic credit and manufacturing indicators on the emission of carbon dioxide in South Africa.

The paper relied on time series data from 1975 to 2014 and employed regression and variance decomposition methods to analyze the data.

In the long run, manufacturing output increases total carbon emissions and emissions from solid fuel; manufactures trade reduces carbon emissions and domestic credit reduces emissions from the manufacturing industries and construction. The long-run effect of the changing technical characteristics of the manufacturing sector is sensitive to the estimation technique used. In the short run, however, changing technical characteristics of the manufacturing sector affect the level of carbon emissions. Income increases emissions from manufacturing industries and construction and urbanization increases total carbon emissions.

Policymakers have to initiate effective policies to promote energy-efficient technologies among manufacturing firms.

The paper examines the effect of manufacturing on carbon dioxide emissions in South Africa. It also examines the possible effect of manufactures trade on carbon emissions. Moreover, the possible effect of the changing characteristics of the manufacturing sector on carbon emissions is investigated.

This study aims to understand the domino effect on housing and construction sector along the economic dimensions in light of COVID-19 pandemic.

The view point in this paper is written based on the domino effect of various sectors in India. Starting from the macro-economic events through to the micro-economic events, the changes are discussed along the platform of COVID-19. Early literature to support the discussions and a wide range of periodicals to observe the current events are used in arriving at a hypothesis.

The impact in any sector does not happen because of a sole event rather it is consequence of changes and trends that took place in multiple sectors. This paper identifies such changes in the sectors of oil industry, cement manufacturing, housing and construction sector during COVID-19. The paper concludes on confirming the hypothesis with two opinions. One by accepting the principle of domino effect that construction domain had various impacts by other sectors at different levels during pandemic. Another on considering the level of impact, the sector has withstood the impacts in various manners and is growing in extensive directions proving the sector to be resilient.

The paper showcases the impacts of various sectors on construction domain with an insight of most recent trends supported by early literature. The linking of elements is the significance of the paper.

Off-site manufacturing (OSM) application in vertically higher and spatially larger projects within Western Australian (WA) commercial sector has demonstrated the potential of benefitting from such a construction technique, but introducing a new methodology to a traditional sector such as commercial sector is not always straightforward. The acceptance of the new methodology, level of awareness of the stakeholders involved and the readiness of the supply chain to deliver, for instance, may influence the success of its implementation. Given the infancy of such methodology in the WA construction industry, this research project aims to analyse factors influencing the implementation of OSM construction method in WA.

Following a thorough literature review, an existing research agenda in OSM was used to inform the direction of this research, i.e. focussing on external macro aspects of the decision making to implement OSM. Three projects in WA were studied, and the data collection was facilitated through archival study and semi-structured interviews with construction practitioners who were the stakeholders of the three projects. Data analysis was conducted through content analysis to draw the findings and conclusion of this research.

The analysis of the studied cases revealed relevant economic/financial, technological and regulatory factors, as well as social factors influencing the implementation of OSM, particularly in WA commercial projects. These findings were then used to develop an overall understanding of the external macro factors influencing decision making in implementing OSM that forms a formal research agenda aimed at enabling successful implementation of OSM in WA construction industry, particularly in its commercial sector.

The research findings presented in this paper identified factors that significantly influence the implementation of such alternative technology in a traditional sector. These factors were then structured to form the subsequent research agenda to continuously pursue the implementation of OSM in the sector. While the research agenda takes into account the unique characteristics of the WA construction industry, it contributes to the global and the Australian national research agenda, and the research methodology reported in this paper can be used to develop similar research agenda elsewhere.

This paper presents the result of a study to identify the costs and benefits of obtaining ISO 9000 certification. Toward this goal, a survey of some 500 ISO 9000 certified companies has been carried out. Among them, more than 65 per cent believe that ISO 9001 certification is worthwhile, and more than 76 per cent believe that the cost of certification is inexpensive. The results indicate that companies which seek certification because of their customers’ request seem to gain less benefit from ISO 9000 certification. We also found that concern for high costs is much less after initial certification. In addition, we discovered that contrary to many people’s expectation, some factors do not have any bearing on whether benefits outweigh costs. These factors include time taken to get certified, number of years since certification, and reason for certification. Besides presenting the results of the survey, we also introduce a new classification scheme based on the company’s view on the “expensiveness” of the certification and the received benefits. There are some differences in responses from companies of different classes.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the effects of both foreign direct investment (FDI) and external debt on economic growth and employment in Egypt over the 1985–2014 period.

The empirical analysis includes three stages: an aggregate time series analysis, a panel model that includes six economic sectors and a set of single-sector models. The “autoregressive distributed lag” approach is utilized either in the time series or in the panel models.

The empirical results of this research reveal that foreign investment exerts a weak positive effect on economic growth and employment in Egypt. External debt exerts an insignificant effect on economic growth and employment in the aggregate model. The sectoral analysis reveals that the effect varies greatly between sectors; the effect of FDI on output is positive in the financial, tourism and other service sectors, while it is insignificant in the agricultural, construction and manufacturing sectors.

It is important not to depend on external debt as an easy way to obtain capital. Greater efforts should be exerted to increase the absorptive capacity of the Egyptian economy so as to benefit from the positive spillover effect of foreign investment as much as possible.

With respect to Egypt, very limited studies have focussed on the role of external debt on growth and that of FDI and external debt on the employment level. There is no general agreement concerning the effect of FDI on economic growth. Therefore, this research explores the effect of FDI and external debt on the Egyptian economy utilizing both aggregate and sectoral data.

This study aims to investigate digital technology (DT) competencies, training and awareness amongst Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) construction students in the UK.

This study uses a quantitative online survey to investigate both BAME Construction Undergraduates Graduate Students (CUGS) and staff studying on and teaching on Construction programmes. The investigation examined their opinions as to their own awareness of their competencies and training regarding DT.

Findings indicate that BAME CUGS were mostly “very proficient” in the use of basic DT, such as required to complete an authentic assessment that typifies a real-life scenario. For example, sending and receiving emails, Excel, Word, computer literacy/basic IT skills, browsing searching materials, PowerPoint, specialist IT skills, mobile devices, tablet and social media handles. However, findings revealed that training awareness and competencies in new DT is shallow, and BAME CUGS are probably not ready for the digitalised construction world. Respondents were mainly within the “probably aware” range, and very few were within the “definitely aware” range, on the Likert scale adopted. New DTs that fell within the “definitely aware” range are BIM, offsite construction and manufacturing, 3D printing, cloud computing and collaboration.

It is acknowledged that expanding the sample size to other universities and exploring BAME industry professionals’ narratives could further enrich the discussion. However, these limitations did not impact the robust practical and theoretical implications provided to CUGS, Higher Education (HE)sectors, University staff and industry emerging from the analysis and findings achieved in the study. Still, it is being recommended for future work to consider.

The study provides valuable recommendations helpful to HE institutions, industry and government. Recommendations provided include a need to review and update the current curriculum, robust partnership between academia and industry, increase government funding, upskilling and training staff in the new DT.

This paper identifies market forces which induce employers to provide training in Ireland. It investigates if they are present in sufficient strength in the consumer service sectors with a high concentration of low‐skill jobs to provide a basis to upgrade such jobs. Data from a survey of firms on training incidence, duration, and cost are used in OLS regressions to investigate the determinants of training at national and sector level. The results show that firm size, the proportion of skilled workers, foreign ownership, perception of changing skill requirements and tightness of the labour market all influence employers' training decisions. Analysis of sector‐specific effects indicates that firms in consumer service sectors are unlikely to respond to market forces by increasing training to a level which would encompass low‐skill jobs. However, policies involving the school system and company‐based training could help to enhance low‐skill jobs in consumer service sectors.

This study aims to investigate the potential application of Istisna’ financing in Malaysia.

Using primary data from semi-structured interviews with 17 participants, including Islamic financial institutions (IFIs), regulatory body and property development companies, the findings of the study suggest that Istisna’ is perceived as a good contract that has unique features and the potential to be implemented in Malaysia; although, it has only been implemented a little by current businesses, mainly due to its perceived high risks.

The authors find there is a gap between the theory and the actual operation of IFIs in Malaysia – some salient features of an Islamic contract are actually difficult to execute in reality as there are many factors to be considered, such as default risk in Istisna’, legal issues and accounting treatment of Istisna’ contract. This study recommends the further development of Istisna’ in Malaysia due to its huge potential in the Islamic financial market there.

Istisna’ is a unique type of sale contract that is used in the manufacturing sectors where the sale of a commodity is transacted before the commodity exists. In practice, data from the Central Bank of Malaysia show that Istisna’ financing is scarce.

The study differs from previous research studies on Istisna’ – to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence the real thoughts of IFIs with regard on Istisna’ specifically and IFIs’ operations in general. Previous studies related to Istisna’ have limited scopes, as they have mainly explored the theoretical nature of the contract, issues of permissibility from the Shariah perspective and its comparability with other IFIs product such as Salam. In this study, from respondents’ views, the authors notice actually there is a gap between theory and the real practice of Islamic finance. An Islamic finance instrument may be an ideal choice to customers but not very popular from IFIs’ sides. In this respect, the authors add to the growing literature of Istisna’ by asking the direct questions to IFIs and the authors get honest responses pertaining to default risk, legal issues and accounting treatment.