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The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.

This chapter aimed to uncover the gaps in the existing construction supply chain management (CSCM) models. Organisational culture and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) components are the two gaps that were identified through reviewing existing CSCM models. The 4IR is driven by three components which are smart management, virtualisation and cyber-physical system. It was proposed in this chapter that the practice of CSCM should be in tandem with the components of 4IR. This chapter recommended that for the effective practice of the construction supply chain (CSC) in the 4IR era, construction stakeholders should adopt an innovative and collaborative organisational culture. The organisational culture adopted by a construction firm performs a crucial role in encouraging construction stakeholders in adopting 4IR components for CSCM. Each of the 4IR components is driven by technologies like autonomous robots, building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID), the internet of things (IoT) and others. Among all the technologies, it was discovered that RFID and BIM had gained prominence in most CSC literature. The chapter recommended that blockchain, digital twins and the cyber-physical system are the next trending technology for CSCM.

The learning ability on critical bargaining information contributes to accelerating construction claim negotiations in the win-win situation. The purpose of this paper is to study how to apply Zeuthen strategy and Bayesian learning to simulate the dynamic bargaining process of claim negotiations with the consideration of discount factor and risk attitude.

The authors first adopted certainty equivalent method and curve fitting to build a party’s own curve utility function. Taking the opponent’s bottom line as the learning goal, the authors introduced Bayesian learning to refine former predicted linear utility function of the opponent according to every new counteroffer. Both parties’ utility functions were revised by taking discount factors into consideration. Accordingly, the authors developed a bilateral learning model in construction claim negotiations based on Zeuthen strategy.

The consistency of Zeuthen strategy and the Nash bargaining solution model guarantees the effectiveness of the bilateral learning model. Moreover, the illustrative example verifies the feasibility of this model.

As the authors developed the bilateral learning model by mathematical deduction, scholars are expected to collect empirical cases and compare actual solutions and model solutions in order to modify the model in future studies.

Negotiators could refer to this model to make offers dynamically, which is favorable for the parties to reach an agreement quickly and to avoid the escalation of claims into disputes.

The proposed model provides a supplement to the existing studies on dynamic construction claim negotiations.

This chapter presented the model for the effective practice of construction supply chain management (CSCM) in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. The model was developed after discovering that the failure of adopting the 4IR component has hindered the synchronisation of construction supply chain (CSC) activities. While some stakeholders are willing to manage their CSC under the 4IR era, most have no clue how to go about it. Most stakeholders are familiar with an existing practice built around collaboration, integration, supply chain structure and trust. This chapter bridges the gap by introducing organisational culture and 4IR components for modelling the CSCM in the 4IR era. The model was backed and grounded with a robust theoretical framework. The theories include social identity theory, change theory and resource-based view theory. It was discovered that the organisational culture adopted by construction stakeholders determines their willingness to embrace the 4IR component for the management of CSC. The 4IR components were divided into smart management, virtualisation and cyber-physical systems. The chapter recommended that the practice of SCM in the Nigerian construction industry should be modelled around the six constructs that were used in developing the model for this study.

Modelling of the multiproject cash flow decisions in a contracting firm facilitates optimal resource utilization, financial planning, profit forecasting and enables the inclusion of cash‐flow liquidity in forecasting. However, a great challenge for contracting firm to manage his multiproject cash flow when large and multiple construction projects are involved (manipulate large amount of resources, e.g. labour, plant, material, cost, etc.). In such cases, the complexity of the problem, hence the constraints involved, renders most existing regular optimization techniques computationally intractable within reasonable time frames. This limit inhibits the ability of contracting firms to complete construction projects at maximum efficiency through efficient utilization of resources among projects. Recently, artificial neural networks have demonstrated its strength in solving many optimization problems efficiently. In this regard a novel recurrent‐neural‐network model that integrates multi‐objective linear programming and neural network (MOLPNN) techniques has been developed. The model was applied to a relatively large contracting company running 10 projects concurrently in Hong Kong. The case study verified the feasibility and applicability of the MOLPNN to the defined problem. A comparison undertaken of two optimal schedules (i.e. risk‐avoiding scheme A and risk‐seeking scheme B) of cash flow based on the decision maker's preference is described in this paper.

This chapter focused on presenting the result of the Delphi study from the questionnaire distributed to the experts. The Delphi technique was used for modelling the construction supply chain management (CSCM) practice in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. The technique was also used to predict the supply chain management's (SCM) possible trends in the construction industry. A total of 15 experts were selected for this study based on their working experience. The Delphi study also validated the gaps (organisational culture and 4IR component) identified from the existing CSCM model. The findings from the Delphi study revealed that organisational culture has a significant impact on the practice of CSCM in the 4IR era. Regarding adopting the 4IR component for the CSCM in Nigeria, the Delphi study revealed that smart management and virtualisation are the most adopted. Unfortunately, the cyber-physical system, the heartbeat of the 4IR, is yet to be fully implemented for CSCM practice in the Nigerian construction industry.

The construction sector must accept new ways of working if it is to remain competitive and meet the demands of its ever-demanding clients in the twenty-first century. Many people believe that collaborative working is required for design and construction teams to comprehend the complete construction process life cycle. Collaboration among project participants has gained a lot of attention in the field of construction management in recent years. The claim that cooperation promotes project success is supported by a number of case studies. The goal of this study is to see if facilitating collaboration is a good indicator of long-term construction. Effective cooperation, on the other hand, is now recognised as having an impact on project performance in terms of project success and delivery.

The selection criteria for contractor pre‐qualification are characterized by the co‐existence of both quantitative and qualitative data. The qualitative data is non‐linear, uncertain and imprecise. An ideal decision support system for contractor pre‐qualification should have the ability of handling both quantitative and qualitative data, and of mapping the complicated non‐linear relationship of the selection criteria, such that rational and consistent decisions can be made. In this research paper, an artificial neural network model was developed to assist public clients identifying suitable contractors for tendering. The pre‐qualification criteria (variables) were identified for the model. One hundred and twelve real pre‐qualification cases were collected from civil engineering projects in Hong Kong, and 88 hypothetical pre‐qualification cases were also generated according to the ‘If‐then’ rules used by professionals in the pre‐qualification process. The results of the analysis totally comply with current practice (public developers in Hong Kong). Each pre‐qualification case consisted of input ratings for candidate contractors' attributes and their corresponding pre‐qualification decisions. The training of the neural network model was accomplished by using the developed program, in which a conjugate gradient descent algorithm was incorporated for improving the learning performance of the network. Cross‐validation was applied to estimate the generalization errors based on the ‘re‐sampling’ of training pairs. The case studies show that the artificial neural network model is suitable for mapping the complicated non‐linear relationship between contractors' attributes and their corresponding pre‐qualification (disqualification) decisions. The artificial neural network model can be concluded as an ideal alternative for performing the contractor pre‐qualification task.

Voluntary participation (VP) has been identified as one of the characterizing features of mediation. This study aims to examine the value of VP in construction dispute mediation from two perspectives. Firstly, is VP a prerequisite of successful construction mediation. Secondly, does power asymmetry (PA) between the contracting parties marginalize the value of VP in fostering the use of mediation to resolve construction disputes.

Constructs of VP, PA and prerequisites of successful mediation were first developed. Principal component factor analysis was performed on data collected from the construction dispute resolution community to explore the underlying structure of the constructs. The relationships between the constructs were tested by structural equation modelling.

VP is found to be an important attribute of successful mediation. PA is also found to be inherent in construction contracting. This study identified three forms of PA: Resource, Information and Expectation. Moreover, this study found no conclusive empirical evidence to support that PA would marginalize the value of VP in fostering an attempt to construction dispute mediation. It is suggested that VP shall remain one of characterizing features of mediation.

The users, mediators and the judiciary should be aware of the importance of VP in mediation, irrespective of the use of mediation is contractual or court-encouraged. Although the presence of PA between the disputing parties, through participating voluntarily and ensuring the mediation process is flexible and fair, the chance of achieving a settlement would be enhanced.

VP has been viewed as one of the fundamentals of mediation. This study empirically supported this design concept. Furthermore, PA in construction contracting can be expressed as disparities in resource, information and expectation. Their existence presents no significant barrier to attempt of mediation. The flexible approach of mediation has been instrumental in overcoming the paradox between VP and PA. This study affirms the positive value of VP in fostering the use of construction dispute mediation.

The Singapore construction sector is promoting performance improvement by implementing collaborative contracting (CC). For CC's successful implementation, there is a need to sieve out the critical success factors (CSFs). Hence, this paper aims to explore factors influencing the adoption of CC and investigate the potential performance improvement by implementing CC.

Based on the literature review, 23 CSFs were identified and packaged to a questionnaire to evaluate the CSF's priority as well as CC's potential impact on the project performance. After prior validation, 165 potential respondents were drawn from survey list by using simple random sampling. Finally, 31 valid responses were received.

The survey result showed that the top five CSFs are mutual trust, all parties to commit fully, openness between parties, commitment to a win–win attitude and resource availability. The majority of respondents hold that CC implementation would improve overall project performance, decision effectiveness, cost, time, quality and risk performance.

Directors, project managers, contractor managers and site engineers have different perceptions of CSFs. Also rather than meeting the same requirements in the implementation of CC, there are differences among projects with different values.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of the CSFs for industry practitioners adopting CC and CC's potential impact on project performance. This study is also helpful for authorities to formulate effective policies to push the implementation of CC.