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This paper presents a bespoke model for understanding off-site construction (OSC) readiness among Indian construction organisations. This model presents 17 variables for discussion, the results from which help support OSC strategic decision-making.

Factor analysis was used to investigate the relationship between variables to group them into factors. After identifying 26 different variables, these were reduced to 17 using factor analysis and categorised into four groups. Descriptive statistical analysis and factor analysis using SPSS was used to develop a hierarchy of factors that affect OSC readiness in India. These findings were reinforced by five domain experts to support the results.

Minimising on-site duration, ensuring cost and time certainty and transportation issues were identified as the three most important factors, whereas lack of guidance and scepticism were among the lowest factors affecting the Indian OSC sector.

This research is specifically focused on OSC within the Indian construction sector. As such, data collection, propagation and analysis should be constrained to the population context regarding inference, generalisability and repeatability.

The proffered OSC readiness model offers OSC practitioners an ability to assess the OSC readiness of construction organisations in India. This includes the evaluation and benchmarking of processes in both strategic and operational phases, including highlighting areas of concern and scope for further development (to achieve optimal advantage of OSC methods).

Originality rests with the use of factor analysis and descriptive statistical analysis to study the influence of different construction-related factors and variables on the OSC sector in India. This impact readiness model is context-specific to the Indian OSC sector – providing a unique insight into the causal factors and dependencies that can affect the adoption and uptake of modern methods of construction in India.

The purpose of this paper is to present a maturity model developed to assess knowledge sharing (KS) for the Jordanian construction sector.

The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage consisted of the review of literature and documenting variables from the literature that highlight influence on KS in organizations. The second stage was designed for maturity model development by identifying the cultural factors that affect KS in the Jordanian construction sector through questionnaires and interviews. Factor analysis was used to find possible relationships between the cultural variables followed by semi-structured interviews. In the third stage the initial maturity model was refined through another set of semi-structured interviews.

The model presented in the paper includes three levels of maturity. The first level identifies whether the variable barely exists in company’s KS practices. The second level shows the occasional techniques which the company uses to increase KS activities. The final level demonstrates the importance of the variable in affecting KS as being fundamentally ingrained in the company’s vision, mission, strategy and operations.

The research has developed a model that can be used to measure the KS in an organization. Although the model has been applied to the construction industry, it can easily be modified to fit in the other sectors.

Employee suggestion scheme (ESS) have existed for many years and many articles have been published over the past decades. They have been studied from many perspectives to illustrate their objectives, nature, content, process, significance and the benefits. Arguments have also been made with respect to success and failures of the suggestion schemes. Although the corporations widely use the suggestion schemes to elicit the creative ideas of their employees, sustaining a suggestion scheme is still a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to extract the critical success factors and critical success criteria to the suggestion scheme and to discuss the importance of these factors on sustainability of suggestion system. This is a literature review paper.

This is a literature review paper. The research used the university library to search for the relevant material. The university has an access for 25,000 journals. As the university had the subscription to main databases such as EBASCO, SCIENCE DIRECT, EMERALD, Google Scholar and WILEY, a search was performed on these databases using the key terms. The keywords used in the searches included: Suggestion System, Suggestion Scheme, Employee Participation, Employee Involvement, Innovation, Employee Creativity and Ideas Management. The Google Scholar citation tab was also searched further to identify any related articles. The citations of resulting articles were scrutinized further for further clues.

This paper identifies 23 critical success factors and 9 critical success criteria for suggestion schemes. It also discusses the interconnection between the critical success factors and the critical success criteria. Further, the frequency of each of the factors is also presented. It recognizes the lack of work on the assessment framework for sustainability of a suggestion scheme.

This paper should be of value to practitioners of suggestion schemes and to academics who are interested in knowing how this program has evolved and where it is today and what future it holds. It offers practical help to an individual starting out on research on the sustainability of suggestion schemes.

The paper attempts to put together many factors discussed in the literature and proposed a definition to define the sustainability of the suggestion system and categorized them as critical success factors and critical success criteria.

This paper aims to present an off-site construction (OSC) readiness maturity model for assessing the readiness of offsite construction companies in the Indian construction sector.

The research was conducted in three stages. The first stage consisted of a detailed literature review to document 17 different variables affecting the OSC adoption in India. In Stage 2, 15 semi-structured interviews were carried out where the participants were asked to refine those variables for the Indian context and define what would be different levels of attainment. In the third stage, another set of 5 semi-structure interviews was performed to validate the maturity levels and definitions.

A three-level OSC readiness maturity model is presented for discussion. This describes 17 variables at different levels of maturity.

The proposed OSC readiness maturity model guides construction practitioners in India through a structured process to enable them to assess their OSC readiness in the market. This assessment enables them to evaluate and benchmark their processes through the strategic and operational phases. The maturity model also identifies the areas of concern and the scope for further development or change to secure the optimal advantage of OSC methods.

The research produced a model to assess the readiness of OSC adoption in the Indian construction sector. Although the model has been applied to the Indian construction sector, it can easily be modified to accommodate other OSM contexts.

This paper aims to investigate the potential challenges that hinder the effective transfer and sharing of tacit knowledge (knowledge communication [KC]) within a construction supply chain (CSC).

This study identifies six challenges (through literature review) with 15 positive correlations between them. Quantitative methodology is used to validate those challenges and correlations between challenges. First, data are collected through semi-structured e-survey questionnaire. Afterwards, a Frequency and Kruskal–Wallis H test is run for initial validation of identified challenges. A correlation analysis is used to highlight the taxonomic relations between those challenges. Finally, the study establishes the rank order of the first and following challenges.

This study highlights that traditional ways of working with construction organisations are the predominant challenge that hinders effective transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge. The cause of challenges is the fragmented nature of CSC. Also, it brings out the correlation between those challenges. The study draws the conclusion and recommendation to implement KC within a CSC.

The study highlights the challenges that hinder KC in a construction process of a CSC. It establishes that the fragmented nature of the construction sector is not the first challenge that hinders implementation of transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge but somewhat traditional organisation structures and working processes. This is the first paper that investigates and tests the challenges in four dimensions and establishes the rank order of challenges with crucial distinction in a KC approach within a CSC.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the critical success factors (CSFs) associated with the effectiveness of transfer and sharing of tacit knowledge in lean and agile construction processes.

The study identifies ten CSFs that initiate the transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge. The CSFs are validated through quantitative study. This study recruited project managers, executives, consultants and other managers that are directly involved in the management of a construction project. It recruits the respondents those have background and experience from disciplines such as lean construction, agile construction, construction supply chain (CSC) and knowledge management in lean, agile and CSC. The data collected through self-administrative questionnaire are categorised as ordinal data to analyse in SPSS with frequency and Kruskal–Wallis H test, Spearman’s correlation analysis and a rank-order analysis is done to establish the level of importance of those factors.

Initially, “Trust between construction organisations” is identified as the foremost CSF. Moreover, other CSFs such as motivation, leadership capabilities, business strategies and organisational capabilities follow trust.

This is the first study that investigates and establishes the CSFs that are essential to initiate transferring and sharing tacit knowledge in a lean and in an agile construction processes.

This study aims to assess “learning opportunities” provided to undergraduate students, from level three to six, in higher education (HE). A knowledge gap was identified within the current practice relating to learning opportunities for built environment (BE) students in HE. The study focussed on the themes under section two of the national student survey (NSS): how students explore ideas or concepts in-depth, bring information and ideas together from different topics and apply the learned content in a real-life context. The study aimed to provide recommendations for enhancing “learning opportunities” to the BE students within HE.

Data collection focussed on section two of NSS “learning opportunities” and documentary analysis, and a qualitative survey were adopted for this study. A documental analysis of 334 mid-module reviews was carried out. The qualitative data was collected from level three to level six students and academics from architecture, construction management, civil engineering and quantity surveying disciplines representing BE context. A sample of 40 students and 15 academics, including a Head of school, a Principal lecturer, Subject leads and lecturers, participated in interviews as part of a qualitative survey. In total, 12 drivers were developed using the data obtained through literature, documental analysis and interviews. These drivers were analysed using manual content analysis to identify their influence on the specified themes under NSS section two and circulated amongst academics to be ranked by identifying its influence to promote learning opportunities to BE students in HE.

This study highlighted 12 drivers which promote learning opportunities in HE within BE curriculum. Findings established that topics should be explained with more real-life or industry-orientated concepts such as simplification integrated into module delivery. Contrary to the literature, the use of physical materials (i.e. handouts and whiteboard) in addition to a virtual learning environment for detailed explanations were considered effective in exploring concepts. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, context-based learning needs to be promoted by integrating videos of practical implementation for better understanding. The study recognised that lab, fieldwork and tutorials were essential to apply what students have learned in BE curricula to a real-life context.

This study identified current learning approaches and provided recommendations to improve the BE students learning experience in HE. They identified 12 drivers that would significantly help academics and academic institutions to understand how learning opportunities should be facilitated in the BE curriculum to enhance student performances in HE.

The impact of thermal comfort in educational buildings continues to be of major importance in both the design and construction phases. Given this, it is also equally important to understand and appreciate the impact of design decisions on post-occupancy performance, particularly on staff and students. This study aims to present the effect of IEQ on teachers’ performance. This study would provide thermal environment requirements to BIM-led school refurbishment projects.

This paper presents a detailed investigation into the direct impact of thermal parameters (temperature, relative humidity and ventilation rates) on teacher performance. In doing so, the research methodological approach combines explicit mixed-methods using questionnaire surveys and physical measurements of thermal parameters to identify correlation and inference. This was conducted through a single case study using a technical college based in Saudi Arabia.

Findings from this work were used to develop a model using an artificial neural network (ANN) to establish causal relationships. Research findings indicate an optimal temperature range between 23 and 25°C, with a 65% relative humidity and 0.4 m/s ventilation rate. This ratio delivered optimum results for both comfort and performance.

This paper presents a unique investigation into the effect of thermal comfort on teacher performance in Saudi Arabia using ANN to conduct data analysis that produced indoor environmental quality optimal temperature and relative humidity range.

The United Kingdom (UK) construction sector is transforming with increasing confidence in offsite construction (OSC) solutions following its accrued benefits. To sustain this momentum, exploring viable strategies to promote successful OSC implementation is a top priority. This paper aims to identify and establish interrelationships and logical dependencies of critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing OSC on building projects in the UK.

This study utilised a qualitative research approach. Following a critical review of extant literature, brainstorming and focus group sessions were carried out with OSC experts in the UK construction industry to identify and contextualise CSFs for OSC implementation. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and matrix impact cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification (MICMAC) were used to analyse and model the interrelationships between the contextualised CSFs.

The study identified eighteen CSFs for implementing OSC on projects in the UK positioned on seven hierarchical levels and clustered into dependent, linkage and independent factors. The top five CSFs established were client commitment, top management support, adequate OSC knowledge and experience, flexible leadership and flexible business models. These were located at the base of the ISM model, possessing the highest driving powers in facilitating the successful implementation of OSC on projects.

This study established a hierarchical interrelationship and the importance of the CSFs influencing the successful implementation of OSC. This would assist OSC clients and project teams in identifying and prioritising particular areas for strategic actions, which offer advantages in pursuing successful OSC project outcomes in the UK. Previous research on OSC implementation in the UK had not examined CSFs' interrelationships.

This study aims to develop a success factor model to understand and facilitate improved cost management system (CMS) implementation in low-cost housing (LcH) project delivery in Nigeria.

Literature findings highlight 13 drivers affecting effective implementation within the CMS and uses series of brainstorming sessions and questionnaire surveys to validate the drivers. Factor analysis (FA) identifies possible contextual relationships among the validated drivers and groups them into three success factors. The results of the FA are refined using interpretive structural modelling (ISM). The ISM identifies and models the influential drivers and aids the development of the success factor model.

Effective team qualities, information and management actions and a stable operational environment are the three essential success factors for effective CMS implementation.

The paper highlights effective team qualities as the most important CMS considerations for Nigerian LcH project delivery. This finding creates the needed awareness to guide project sponsors and project managers in the appropriate selection of the project management team (PMT) as well as the procurement system that facilitates their collaboration.

This study is a novel research using FA and ISM to investigate the influence of success factors needful for effective implementation within the CMS. It further develops a hierarchy model that aids the PMT with better understanding of the drivers and factors interrelationships for use on LcH projects within the Nigerian context.