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This study aims to review the current trends in early contractor involvement (ECI) in construction project development. The review consist of the following objectives: (1) identifying the benefits of ECI on construction project development; (2) identifying the challenges of ECI in construction project development; and (3) identifying the strategies of ECI in construction project development.

This study systematically reviews the literature on the application of ECI in construction project development. A total of 133 related articles were identified and analyzed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method.

This review identified “improved team work/collaboration working relationship” as the top benefits of ECI in construction project development. “Cultural barrier” was identified as the top challenge of ECI in construction project development, while “contributing value engineering” and “buildability evaluation input”, were the top two strategies of ECI in construction project development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to systematically review prior literature on ECI. As a result, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the art and fills the literature gap. Researchers and industry professionals can use the study findings to increase the rate and benefits of implementing ECI in construction projects.

This study aims to convey the understanding of the ecosystem – how “hundi” works on the border trade between Myanmar and northern Thailand, which is an informal transfer system and is widely used as an alternative banking system. Even though the role of hundi is unable to declare the sources of money under the standard settlement of formal banking system, a failure to operate of its official mechanism are carrying using hundi, as a financial platform across the border between Thailand and Myanmar. This study surveys the best practice mechanism for the regional and international cooperation.

This paper draws on relevant literature, open-source reporting, and interviews with more than 30 interviewees on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Interviewees includes border-trader, money changer, money transfer operators, business leaders, hundi operators, immigrant labors, government officials and commercial banking staffs.

This study provides a unique insight of hundi system, which work as the alternative mode of formal banking. It is an informal fund transfer payment platform used on the border between Thailand and Myanmar in the past five decades. It insists that hundi plays a significant role in both substitution and complementary on the trade and payment across the border of Myanmar–Thailand. Even though confronting with the barriers of financing of terrorism (anti money laundering AML/combating the financing of terrorism CFT) risk, the competition with the expanding and modernizing formal banking sector, and the introduction of Fintech and mobile money services. In the short term, these are unlikely to eliminate the hundi system completely, but may instead push hundi operators towards adopting these networks and technologies in their own operations.

This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are seeking to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi.

This is the latest work for border trade payment or trade financing role of hundi which has hidden under the informal market of the border for several decades. It has few research of hundi on border trade and payment, particularly after the military coup in 2021 which made hundi return to be on the spotlight and simultaneous mechanism of border trade and payment ecosystem of Myanmar. This paper will be a useful source for academics, development professionals, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and business actors who are eager to understand Myanmar’s informal payment system, hundi, especially during the hardship.

There has been an explosion of interest in “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (EDI) – also referred to as DEI among other acronyms. On the one hand, this management trend has the potential to draw attention to the ways in which organizational practices and climates can be transformed to have a positive impact on the underrepresentation of women and other marginalized and excluded groups in the workplace. On the other hand, there may be real consequences for women as EDI replaces other concepts such as women's rights, gender equality, affirmative action, employment equity, gender discrimination, etc. This chapter applies a gender lens to the EDI concept and management policy and practice. It juxtaposes EDI's emergence with the lack of progress on gender equality that is observed and measured in many regions of the world and highlights several critiques that may explain this lack of progress. It also identifies what EDI policies and practices need to take into consideration to better address gender inequality in the workplace. Legal approaches are discussed along with a list of potential areas of research on EDI and gender equality to determine the best path forward for making concrete progress on true equality for women in the workplace.

This chapter discusses the impacts of David Maines's scholarship in communication research. The utilities of Maines's scholarship in communication research were first identified in a 1997 session in the annual convention of National Communication Association (NCA) by many leading scholars. This chapter documents the applications of Maines's scholarship in communication research in recent years when communication researchers utilized concepts and arguments constructed by Maines to investigate narratives in relations to Donald Trump's presidential election as well as the COVID-19 pendemic.

This study aims to set out to identify and evaluate potential obstacles to successfully implementing lean construction (LC) as a result.

Several indicators were recognized as major obstacles following an exhaustive assessment of the literature and a multicriteria decision analysis based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) of information obtained from a questionnaire survey that was directed to practitioners in the Indian construction industry.

The results of this AHP model suggest that “Managerial” and “Inadequate resources” categories with a priority weight of “0.361” and “0.309” have the highest levels of influence, respectively, while “Inadequate knowledge” and “just in time (JIT)” categories with a priority weight of “0.053” and “0.034” have the lowest levels of influence, respectively.

Construction companies can use the study’s findings as a guide to determine whether they are ready to embrace LC, learn more about the components needed for implementation or investigate any challenges that may arise. These businesses can then create plans to promote the adoption and application of the lean philosophy.

The Indian construction industry may see great success with LC management initiatives. LC concepts have been adopted by many nations, but during the past 20 years, there has only appeared to be a limited amount of lean implementation in the Indian construction industry. It seems that several structural and cultural barriers are preventing its effective implementation. Organizations will not be able to determine what improvement efforts are required, where these efforts should be directed or which initiatives could provide the best outcomes if they are unaware of the elements that influence the effective implementation of LC.

Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation.

The ongoing adverse effects of climate change have led scientific think tanks to aim towards achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets with affordable and clean energy (Sustainable Development Goal 7). One of the significant contributors to the escalating emissions rate is the use of conventional vehicles. The uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) is a promising solution for a cleaner economy. However, increased penetration poses various challenges to the power system. There is a need to explore alternatives, such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), to use the advantages of both electric and conventional vehicles and bridge the gap between them. However, the transition to hydrogen-based transport requires intensive study of its key benefits and issues, the actions that need to be taken to achieve a changeover concerning light and heavy vehicles and whether such kind of transformation is likely or even possible. This chapter highlights the brief history and mechanics of HFCVs. It further analyses the various benefits and challenges which the technology poses. Additionally, it addresses critical questions regarding the feasibility of the shift towards hydrogen fuel to satisfy the world's rapidly growing energy needs and meet net-zero targets based on real-life applications. This chapter will be a valuable resource for further research, development and education efforts in HCFVs to assist in the rapidly growing transportation needs for automobiles and other vehicles.