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An organisation’s performance tends to be associated with its innovativeness. However, innovation remains challenging in the construction industry, partially due to the complex nature of this industry. Nevertheless, innovation orientations (i.e. creation and adoption) shed new light on innovation in the construction industry. These orientations are similar but not entirely identical. Although most studies do not discuss these orientations in any detail, this study aims to classify the characteristics of the innovation orientations and determines the state of innovation among construction companies in Malaysia.

A survey questionnaire was mailed to 1,230 construction companies in Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the respondents’ profiles, and factor analysis was used to classify the innovation orientation characteristics. A paired samples t-test was used to determine the state of innovation among the construction companies.

Innovation creation reflects a pioneer’s efforts and involves being a market explorer that tolerates risk and is research and development (R&D)-oriented, whereas innovation adoption involves being a creative imitator, a market follower and a safe player. Construction companies in Malaysia are innovation adoption–oriented.

This study uses quantitative methods only; therefore, the findings are statistically oriented. The small sample size makes generalisation challenging, so this study reflects only the built environment of the developing country of Malaysia.

This study classifies the characteristics of innovation creation and innovation adoption with respect to the innovation orientation of construction companies in Malaysia.

Innovation is defined as the creation and adoption of changes that are new to an organisation or industry. The high probability of failure and the lack of innovation in the construction industry have highlighted the importance of innovation (both creation and adoption) as a business orientation. Although they are related to the construction industry, architectural firms receive little attention from an innovation perspective despite being perceived as important drivers of innovation. Thus, this paper aims to examine the distinctive characteristics of various innovation orientations and determine the state of innovation among architectural firms.

A postal survey was sent to 1,004 registered architectural firms in Malaysia. The data were processed using descriptive analysis. A factor analysis was conducted to categorise innovation creation and adoption, and a paired samples t-test was performed to examine the innovation orientations of architectural firms.

Innovation creation and innovation adoption are two distinct orientations with different characteristics. Architectural firms in Malaysia are oriented towards innovation creation, which intersects with innovation adoption.

This study used a questionnaire survey that generated only statistical results. Future research should conduct interviews or focus group discussions to obtain comprehensive findings.

The innovation concept is expanded in terms of its orientations.

This study illustrates significant differences between innovation creation and innovation adoption in the architectural firms of a developing country, i.e. Malaysia.

Innovation, privatisation and property development.

Undergraduate and MA level property development courses; modules covering privatisation within undergraduate, MBA and MA level management programmes.

This paper presents the genesis and motivating factors that stimulate a managing director of a housing development (D&B Private Limited Company) to introduce innovation as a strategic solution to the challenges which hinder his firm's growth. The recently launched Ten Malaysian Plan and the Sustainable Programme for Corporate Malaysia are identified as the two stimulating events that triggered the initiation and subsequent implementation of innovation into Design and Build Sdn Bhd. Innovation has been recognized as an endeavor that impacts positively and significantly the performance of the firm that innovates. There was a major focus on factors that enhance innovation of a firm: structure, culture, resources and how to address or react to external factors such as government regulation on innovation, environmental uncertainty and market competition. The quest to be an innovative firm has led to major changes in the structure, culture and review of the firm intangible resources. Coupled with some corporate responsibilities, Design and Build Sdn Bhd has been recognized for its unique performance resulting from the competitive advantage derived from this very idea of innovations.

Students are expected to be able: to present a basic understanding of the motivations and driving force behind the housing developer's keen interest to innovate, to present the multiple benefits of adopting innovation in the housing industry, to highlight the internal and external factors which positively influence innovation among housing developers?, to present how housing developers are able to manage challenges facing their companies through innovation.

Teaching notes.

As innovation has been recognised as important in improving construction company performances, this study aims to determine the effects of client focus and company type on innovation and company financial performances.

A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 300 architectural and contractor companies and 163 (54.3%) were returned. The questionnaire data were analysed using a partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Client focus was found to have a complementary partial mediation effect on the relationships between innovation and company financial performance and that innovation independently affected company financial performance with the influence being stronger in the architecture companies than in the contractor companies.

The study adopted a broad definition for innovation without considering the innovation types. As different types of innovation require distinct knowledge, skills, capabilities and management practices, future studies could investigate the various types of innovation and their effects on financial performance.

The findings provide valuable suggestions for principals, top management and policymakers on the importance of client focus when developing and disseminating innovation within the company. Also, architecture companies should focus on implementing innovation to stay competitive.

The mediating effects of client focus and the moderating effects of company type were simultaneously analysed on the relationship between innovation and financial performance.

This study aims to examine the effects of green construction site practices on the economic performance of projects executed by “class A” contractors in Nigeria. The effects of stormwater management, materials management waste management and energy management on economic performance were examined.

Data was collected through a survey of class A contractors in Nigeria, and 168 usable responses were received. The partial least-squares structural equation modelling technique was used to analyse the collected data.

It was observed that all the green construction practices studied had significant effects on the economic performance of construction projects with the greatest effect from energy management.

The results imply that green construction practices generally lead to economic performance. The study has both theoretical and practical implications, as it helps both policymakers and contractors better understand the relationships between these variables of green construction practices and economic performance to better plan for their projects and for the government to formulate appropriate policies.

The study’s findings makes significant contributions to the ongoing discussion on the relationship between green construction practices and economic performance. The relationship established between stormwater management, waste management, materials management, energy management and economic performance in this study is different when compared with those in other similar studies.

The COVID-19 health crisis has brought about a set of extra health and safety regulations, and procedures to the construction industry which could influence projects' economic performance (EP). The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting COVID-19 safety protocols on construction sites on the economic performance (EP) of construction projects.

Employing the survey method using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from small- and large-sized construction projects in Nigeria and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The findings reveal that job re-organization and sanitization have negative significant effects on EP, while social distancing and specific training have no effect on EP. Furthermore, project size moderates the relationship between job re-organization, sanitization, specific training and EP with the stronger effect on the relationships observed in big projects, except for the relationship between sanitization and EP where the moderating relationship is stronger in small projects. However, there is no significant moderating effect of project size on the relationship between social distancing and EP.

As construction project sites continue to operate amidst strict safety protocols, this study offers theoretical and practical insights on how construction projects can adhere to the safety protocols while performing economically.

The originality of this study's findings stems from the fact that it is among the first to provide greater insight on how construction projects have fared economically considering the impact of the various COVID-19 protocols.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had major impacts on the performance of construction projects that have adopted social distancing measures. This study examines the effect of social distancing measures on project schedule performance through job reorganization on construction project sites.

Responses were obtained through a survey of 154 construction projects and analysed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique.

The findings established that social distancing has a negative effect on schedule performance, social distancing has a positive effect on job re-organization and job re-organization has a positive effect on schedule performance. Additionally, the results indicate that job re-organization partially mediates the relationship between social distancing and schedule performance, while social distancing moderates the relationship between job re-organization and schedule performance with low social distancing having the stronger positive effect.

This study contributes theoretically to a greater understanding of the impact of adopting COVID-19 safety measures such as social distancing on the schedule performance of construction projects. The study also shows how social distancing could lead to schedule performance through job reorganization.

This study aims to assess the impact of adopting selected green construction site practices on the health and safety performance of the construction projects. The impact of storm-water management, energy management and construction waste management on projects health and safety performance was also examined.

A survey was conducted to collect information from Class A contractors in Nigeria, and 168 usable responses were received. The data were analysed using the partial least squares (PLSs) structural equation modelling technique.

The findings indicate that energy management and waste management practices have significant effects on the health and safety performance of the construction projects, while storm-water management has no effect.

Project and site managers need to take into consideration the skill set of their workforce when attempting to adopt new innovative construction strategies the workers are unfamiliar with in a changing construction environment. There is also a need for more training of workers on generic and specific green skills to avoid health and safety challenges on site.

The findings of this study make significant contribution to the debate on the health and safety performance of green projects, as only a few studies have been conducted on this topic. The empirical relationships between the constructs of energy management, waste management, storm-water management and health and safety performance are unique in the context of other related studies and have advanced the body of existing knowledge.

This paper aims to examine the external factors that influence the implementation of the new concept of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Yemen.

This study used a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to Yemeni organizations. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, with appropriate tests of reliability, consistency, correlation and multiple regression analysis.

The findings indicate that implementation of PPPs are affected through the government policies, market readiness and environmental uncertainty. The empirical evidence also suggests that government policies are the main predictor to PPPs implementation in Yemen. The proposed conceptual framework can be useful in developing PPPs implementation.

This study contributes to the existing literature on PPPs by providing empirical evidence to identify the external factors that influence the readiness to implement PPPs. Furthermore, the study adds value through its contextual originality, given that this study is the first to empirically use the readiness theory in PPP implementation. Moreover, this paper describes the first attempt to investigate the implementation of PPPs in the context of Yemen.

This study aims to assess the construction firm’s innovation orientation and to investigate its relationship with firm characteristics.

A structured survey was conducted among 105 firms in the Malaysian construction industry. The results of the factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions of innovation, namely, innovation creation and innovation adoption. For the cluster analysis, the firms were segmented into four subgroups according to four dimensions, namely, non-innovative, innovation-creator, imitator and innovative firms.

Firm’s business scale and age significantly affected the innovation orientation of construction firms.

This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by adding a new firm characteristic, business scale, as a potential predictor of firms’ innovativeness. This study is the first to explore the effect of firm characteristics on the innovation orientation of firms.