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Although there are many challenges and constraints for construction organization operation and performance in a post-conflict condition, there is insufficient construction project management literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify a framework to understand and determine critical constraints and opportunities in a post-conflict condition facing local construction firms in Afghanistan. The proposed framework is composed of three major steps: identify and determine key performance indicators; identify challenges impacting organization operation and performance in post-conflict condition; determine critical constraints and opportunities based on prioritized performance measures; and organizational strength and weakness factors.

The strength, weakness, opportunities and threat matrix analysis has been used to determine post-conflict condition constraints and opportunities. Then the analytical hierarchy process has been used to prioritize the measures and identify the constraints and opportunities facing construction companies in a post-conflict situation. The mix-research method is applied to this study to analyse qualitative variables and quantitative variables obtained from the experts’ opinions and 51 filled questioners.

The study shows that there are a total of 11 critical constraints and three essential opportunities for construction companies that industry practitioners and policymakers should take into account while formulating the organizational strategy.

The developed framework will benefit construction companies in improving their performance and operation in after-conflict conditions.

This paper is the first to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of the challenges and constraints for construction organization operation and performance in a post-conflict condition. It also offers a novel conceptual framework to understand and determine critical constraints and opportunities in a post-conflict condition facing local construction firms in Afghanistan.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perception of high school students on the factors impacting their career decisions and whether gender and grade have an influence on the decision‐making process.

Literature review was used to identify relevant factors which were incorporated into the design of the survey instrument. The questionnaire was administered via a postal survey and information collected from 599 male and 491 female high school students in the Western Cape Province. Survey response data were subjected to descriptive statistics and subsequently parametric tests.

Salary, working conditions, opportunities for promotion and lifelong learning were reported by both male and female students as the most important factors, whereas family tradition and peers were the least important factors according to the male and female high school students, respectively. Grade had a significant impact on the process with students in Grade 11 scoring higher on salary, working conditions and lifelong learning opportunities whereas Grades 12 and 10 scored higher on skills shortage and family tradition, respectively.

The cross‐sectional data made it difficult to generalise the findings.

The findings are of particular importance to high school teachers and guidance counsellors who influence career choices amongst high school students. It is likely that teachers and counsellors themselves have been negatively influenced by the poor image of the construction industry. The identification of factors enables the development of viable strategies and balances the social dynamics of the male dominated environment.

There are few studies which try to investigate the career decision‐making process of high school students in an African environment. These results challenge the factors impacting career decision making among South African high school students and provide information rarely examined. Conclusively, the paper finds that control variables such as grade and gender are significant in the career decision‐making process of high school students. This paper contributes to bridging that gap.

The emerging perspectives of entrepreneurial ecosystems, bricolage and effectuation highlight the interaction between the entrepreneur and the surrounding community, and its potential for creative resource acquisition and utilization. However, empirical work on how this process actually unfolds remains scarce. This paper aims to study the interaction between the opportunity construction process and the development of resources in the surrounding ecosystem.

This paper is a qualitative analysis of the extreme case of Aalto Entrepreneurship Society (Aaltoes), a newly founded organization successfully promoting entrepreneurship within a university merger with virtually no resources, based on interviews of six key contributors and four stakeholder organizations.

The opportunity construction process both supported and was supported by two key resource generating mechanisms. Formulating and opportunistically reformulating the agenda for increasing potential synergy laid the groundwork for mutual benefit. Proactive concretization enhanced both initial resource allocation and sustaining input to the process through offering tangible instances of specific opportunities and feedback.

Although based on a single case study in a university setting, proactive concretization emerges as a promising direction for further investigations of the benefits and dynamics of entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction in the opportunity construction process.

Intentionally creating beneficial entrepreneur–ecosystem interaction and teaching proactive concretization becomes a key goal for educators of entrepreneurship.

The paper extends an understanding of creative resource generation and utilization in the opportunity construction process. The role of proactive concretization was emphasized in the interaction of the entrepreneur and the ecosystem, creating virtuous spirals of entrepreneurial activity.

Examines the situation faced by women in the UK construction industry. Finds that women are confronted by a significant number of barriers, beginning with difficulties in joining the industry. In addition, the administrative or human resource management roles traditionally occupied by women do not lead to mainstream roles and senior management roles. To increase prospects, women need to able to take on the more mainstream roles in the industry such as design, engineering and construcition iteself. The main investigation of the article is therefore into the barriers preventing women from taking these roles. Conclusions and suggestions for reform are made.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into how a project alliance contract is conducive to the development of cooperative relationships between client and contractor organizations involved in a complex project.

A longitudinal case study of a complex construction project was conducted in which the contract was changed at the end of the negotiation period from a design‐build into a project alliance form.

Data show that opportunistic behaviour is reduced when there is an incentive structure, as is to be found in project alliances, for client and contractor organizations to cooperatively realize the project. However, it is not sufficient for project partners to agree upon an appropriate incentive structure. For cooperative relationships to develop, they also have to put substantial efforts into reducing their remaining inclinations to make use of opportunities that arise to deviate from the alliance contract.

It is shown that both principals and contractors not only need to carefully select staff for such projects; they also have to work with the people employed such that appropriate attitudes are reinforced and rewarded. Developing cooperative relationships in project alliances needs the surrounding working methods to offer support.

The longitudinal character of the case study offers exceptional opportunities for studying the dynamics in preventing and overcoming the deteriorating patterns of opportunistic behaviour that organizations regularly face in many traditional and design‐build projects.

The UK Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a statutory duty on all public authorities to promote race equality throughout all their functions. The purpose of this paper is to discuss steps being taken by social landlords in Wales and contractors and consultants to promote race equality within the construction procurement process.

The principle methods of data collection were focus groups with social landlords and postal questionnaires and semi structured telephone interviews with construction contractors and consultants.

Little action is being taken by social landlords in Wales to promote race equality within the construction procurement process. Furthermore, construction contractors and consultants that undertake work on behalf of social landlords are doing little to ensure race equality within their own organisations.

A relatively small sample of construction contractors and consultants took part in the research.

In order to meet their obligations under current legislation social landlords need to ensure that they promote race equality within the procurement process. Construction companies including maintenance and minor works contractors that aspire to be engaged by social landlords will need to demonstrate that they are committed to race equality and its implementation and have the appropriate policies and procedures in place to ensure this.

This research is the first to evaluate the procurement practices of social landlords in Wales and how these practices may impact on race equality within the procurement process. The research also examined the steps being taken to promote equality by construction contractors and consultants operating within the social housing sector in Wales.

Blockchain as a disruptive technology has revolutionized many industries, such as finance, logistics and manufacturing sectors. This paper aims to explore Blockchain applications in construction to effectively manage project workflows and uplift construction efficiency.

Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with various stakeholders from a public infrastructure project to analyze Blockchain applications in the construction industry. Eleven key construction workflows are selected to identify and discover the necessity and significance of Blockchain applications in the construction industry. They are related to construction program, daily operations and payment. Based on workflow analysis, several issues are discussed to design a development roadmap of Blockchain in the construction industry.

The findings show Blockchain can improve construction efficiency, reduce paper-based manual operation and address the fragmentation and communication issue. However, the development of Blockchain in the construction industry is still impeded by some challenges. Traditional work modes might be existing even though Blockchain-enabled systems are introduced, which may increase the workload of construction practitioners. Thus, a feasible and practical development roadmap is proposed to instruct implementation of Blockchain in construction.

This research systematically analyzes the development of Blockchain in the construction industry from several existing workflows, based on a real-life case study. Several considerations are given to provide referential value for applying Blockchain in the construction industry, including opportunities and challenges, cost–benefit analysis, obstacles and possible solutions, as well as development strategies with a prototype system.

Additive manufacturing (AM) and building information modelling (BIM) are emerging trends for which it has been claimed that both increase both efficiency and productivity in the construction industry. This study aims to synthesise and aggregate the literature addressing BIM integration in the AM of concrete structures and to exploit the joint value creation potential.

This study firstly applies a mixed-review method to achieve mutual corroboration and interdependency between quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Bibliometric mapping is applied to identify, map and synthesise the relevant literature. Scoping review is used to examine the extent, gap, range and nature of the research activity. Afterward, a cross-situational analysis, the threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths² matrix, is proposed and applied to exploit the joint value creation potential of different aspects of AM and BIM.

The study reveals a substantial interest in this field. However, progress in terms of integration is slow compared to the rapid development in interest in the two trends individually. The literature discusses or conceptualises such integration at building-scale, while prototyping or proof-of-concept processes are only rarely used. The study identified 12 joint value creation potentials through the integration of BIM in AM for concrete structures, which can create value by enabling more optimised designs, automated construction processes and data analytics that can apply throughout the building life-cycle process.

The advancements of BIM integration in the AM of concrete structures are analysed and joint value creation potentials are proposed. The study proposes a cross-situation analysis that can be applied to structure joint value creation potentials from the multi-dimensional integration of different factors and topics, especially for emerging technologies.

The construction programmes of developing countries have constituted a significant part of the international construction market. However, while international contractors seek to exploit these opportunities, the host nations also wish to develop their construction industries over time. This paper shows how conflicting objectives of international contractors and host countries can be correlated for mutual benefit. It outlines strategies adopted by international construction enterprises and contrasts the approaches they adopt in industrialised countries with those in developing ones. It then compares the objectives of international construction enterprises to those of host countries. It uses Singapore's experience to illustrate likely future developments in the construction industries of emerging countries. Finally, it offers suitable approaches that international and local construction enterprises, and governments, should adopt at various stages of development of host countries' construction industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine equal employment policies in Australia’s male-dominated construction industry and categorise the types of activities undertaken against an equal employment typology to identify links to outcomes for women in the form of increased participation and management.

To explore the issue of low representation of women in construction through the content analysis of 83 construction organisations’ equal employment opportunity (EEO) reports.

This industry is not engaging with equal employment issues and the numbers of women working in the industry and/or management are based on individual decision rather than an institutional commitment to equality in diversity.

Australian legislation mandates organisational reporting of relevant data and offers public access to this information offering a unique data set.

An ageing population means that the predominately older male workforce is leaving construction in greater numbers with fewer potential replacements making new labour markets a vital consideration.

Legislation and organisational policies designed to promote EEO for women have existed in numerous countries for decades. One objective of this legislation was to reduce male domination in senior positions and industries/occupations where women were under-represented. Despite this, few women are employed in construction in operational or management roles worldwide.

This study offers a comprehensive analysis of a male-dominated industry in one jurisdiction rather than a few selected cases and uses a broader rigorous typology for analysis that acknowledges both equal and different treatment options.