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Governments in developing countries seeking to meet their infrastructure backlog are increasingly turning to public–private partnerships (PPP) due to a lack of public funds. However, while there are factors which drive the current uptake of projects, there are challenges with attracting private finance, and it is not clear what incentives can be used to attract more private participation, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Therefore, this study aims to examine challenges, drivers and incentives that affect private participation in PPP projects in Zambia.

The study used a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews with participants who had first-hand experience working on the administration of PPP projects. The participants were predominantly from the public sector, and so the results are largely a public sector perspective on the matter.

The findings show that bureaucracy and a poor business environment emanating from poor policies, long procedures and a poor economic environment are the main challenges affecting PPP projects. The current demand for the projects is being driven by a stable business and economic environment while incentives include enhancing the business environment by improving procedures and policies.

The study contributes to extant literature by proposing an overarching theory about the challenges affecting the implementation of PPP projects in Zambia, in particular, and in SSA, in general. The results show areas where governments and government agencies responsible for PPP projects can focus attention to promote private participation.

Construction research comprises quality contributions to the modern methods of construction (MMC) context in terms of their benefits and relative advantages. However, the uptake of MMC is yet deemed very low in the public sector. Knowing that public clients acquire the purchasing power and the influential status to drive industry change, understanding their low MMC uptake is necessary.

A systematic review of literature has been chosen to extract the key variables contributing to the limited adoption of MMC across the public sector, reinforced by a qualitative semi-structured interview with 12 industry leaders and public clients. This methodology enables the authors to explore works from the past decade, paving a direction for an adequate empirical investigation by reviewing and critically analysing 49 academic articles and interviewing 12 industry leaders and public clients.

The study captured and argued the characteristics that have an influence on public clients' decision, inhibiting the extraction of values associated with greater MMC deployment. A critical analysis resulted in identifying 13 characteristics under 4 main themes, providing a new argument to existing knowledge by calling on the need to better understand public clients and the influence of their own characteristics on their MMC uptake.

This paper utilises the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory which offers constructs that help explain the influence of the characteristics of a decision-making unit. The authors’ knowledge on public construction clients is limited, and more research in this direction may help in better aggregating construction demand. Overall, arguments provided in this paper enable relative improvements in supply's business models when approaching the public market. The study is believed to be in support of the relative governmental efforts to shape effective policies that can enhance innovation uptake among public bodies.

Against a background context of Construction 4.0, this study aims to explore what digital leadership in construction firms is, why it is necessary and what considerations it involves. It provides a digital leadership considerations framework to aid organisational digital transformations.

To address the research question informing what digital leadership involves, an interpretivist study was conducted. Eleven purposively selected expert practitioners, including construction business leaders and company digital champions were surveyed using in-depth semi-structured interviews. This obtained insights and reflections on how construction leaders can impel digital transformations.

How construction leaders can embed the skills to drive such transformation in their firms, what the essential digital skills for construction businesses now are in Construction 4.0 and how leaders can attempt to evaluate the value of digital technology for their business practices, are all crystallised. Impacts of digital transformations on the construction workplace are also highlighted.

Because of this work, business leaders will be better equipped to lead and support further digital transformation efforts in Construction 4.0. Future research directions aid academics.

Clear definitions of digital transformation and digital leadership are provided, and a digital leadership considerations framework is provided to support firm-level digital transformations for Construction 4.0.

While previous studies have highlighted the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability in building designs, there is a paucity of studies that assess the extent to which design teams in developing countries consider environmental sustainability at the building design stage. Therefore, using Zambia as a case study, this study examined the extent to which infrastructure design teams in a developing country consider environmental sustainability at the design stage.

The study used a qualitative research approach using structured interviews because there are hardly any studies which have explored the extent to which designers incorporate environmental sustainability in infrastructure designs in developing countries. The data is analysed thematically using the ATLAS.ti software.

The results show that environmental sustainability is not an important design consideration because it is secondary to functional, technical and aesthetic considerations. Environmental considerations are also made in an ad hoc manner and when it is cost-effective for the project. Regulatory requirements pertaining to environmental protection are adhered to without any cost considerations. It was, therefore, theorised that building design teams in developing countries make technical, functional and aesthetic consideration during the infrastructure design stage ahead of environmental considerations.

There is a paucity of studies that have investigated whether building infrastructure designers consider issues of environmental sustainability at the design stage in developing countries. The findings have practical implications on how developing countries can foster environmental sustainability at the design stage and avoid generating a building infrastructure stock that will require environmental resilience adaptation in the future.

The recent failures and insolvencies of organisations related to the modern methods of construction (MMC) have gained increased attention and controversy across the UK construction sector. Such failures are linked to their inability to achieve an economy of scale and drive key clients to accept the MMC as an alternative to traditional methods. This paper aims to unravel whether a phenomenon of “innovation negativism” has manifested and is contributing to public clients' indecision towards broader MMC, whether this is only linked to past negative experiences formed after the Second World War or whether additional contributing reasons exist to influence adoption.

This study focusses on exploring the decision-making of the UK public construction sector; therefore, this paper adopts a qualitative approach, utilising interviews with 14 carefully selected MMC experts, government advisors and public clients. The phenomenological stance adopted herewith enables the authors to make better sense of the perceptions of the interviewees, leading to the conceptualisation of the innovation negativism phenomenon.

The paper identifies nine themes that may be argued to promote a profound understanding of the MMC negativism influencing public clients' decision-making. The study has found that more than just the previous negative perceptions formulated post Second World War are driving innovation negativism in the UK public sector. Notably, the emerging themes are incomprehension, lacking evidence, communication, relationship history, bad experiences, uncertainty, inadequate experimentation, the business case and localism.

This study is the first construction management research that acts as a fair departure point to conceptualise the reasoning behind innovation negativism in the construction setting. Through mirroring demand's unipolarity for traditional methods, policy and decision-makers can now rely on the conceptualised reasoning to determine practical solutions to overcome clients' indecisions towards MMC.

Digital uptake amongst construction organisations is described as slow and ineffective, undermining a fundamental transformation and limiting construction firms from exploiting the digital benefits. In this space, meaningful research that utilises a qualitative approach in pursuit for employees' insights towards digital transformation is lacking. Such limited focus from previous efforts presents an opportunity to illuminate the determinants of an effective digital transformation that are, arguably, responsible for the status quo of low digital uptake in the construction sector. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned idea.

This study adopts a qualitative approach to address the literature's digital discreetness in construction. The qualitative approach captures employees' perspectives through its unbounded characteristic of encouraging illustration and discussion.

This paper captures 35 digital transformation determinants under three clusters, namely, organisation related, i.e. hierarchy, size and management, people related, i.e. team orientation, training and knowledge and leadership related, i.e. awareness, attitude, approach and leaders' characteristics. Findings suggest a new set of arguments in relation to understudied factors and their influence on the digital uptake in construction organisations.

This paper offers empirical indication of the determinants believed to influence an effective digital transformation in construction organisations. Such conceptualisation is crucial and is depicted as perceived by construction employees and practitioners, which is a less biased approach than that of comparable studies that argue the viewpoints of industry leaders in isolation of other members of the hierarchy.

The benefits of integrating immersive technologies (ImTs) within a construction safety context are acknowledged within the literature; however, its practical application on construction sites remains low. Whilst research into the integration of ImTs within the construction industry is underway, most have viewed this from a broader adoption context or within educational settings, and not specifically from a practical on-site safety perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address the contributing factors to its integration within on-site safety processes, using the experiences of active construction professionals.

This study adopts a qualitative approach. Data was collected through online focus groups involving UK based construction professionals with experience in using ImTs, recruited using selective sampling. Data sets were subsequently analysed using inductive thematic analysis and are presented within key themes.

The results showed that among the experienced construction professionals, the use of ImTs specifically for on-site safety applications (including inductions/training/workshops) was rare on projects. The findings identified various contributing factors related to the integration of ImTs, including the potential improvements in on-site safety practices such as enhanced communication of hazards, safety planning, engagement during training and more accurate risk assessment. Critical challenges, concerns and frustrations included a lack of engagement from senior level management, inadequate leadership, limited investment, a need for digital expertise, fear of complacency and the acceptance of ImTs within existing safety processes from the wider project team.

This study provides a fresh perspective to this field by using practical accounts from active and experienced on-site construction professionals. This study supports the integration of ImTs within the construction industry, presenting key contributing factors influencing its integration within on-site safety processes. These factors can be considered by industry adopters, and includes the rationale, challenges and potential on-site benefits of ImTs.

The UK Government has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, being the first major nation to do so. While laudable, it raises the question, “are future built environment professionals (BEPs) equipped for this?” Although studies related to students’ perspectives exist, they broadly focus on sustainability-related pedagogical aspects, with limited studies conducted in the built environment (BE). This study makes the case that it is timely to investigate this from an emerging perspective using the term “low-carbon future” (LCF), given that it is germane to achieving net-zero emissions and is at the forefront of academic and practice discourse. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the knowledge level of UK BE students’ in higher education institutions (HEIs) specific to the term LCF.

This is a systematic scoping study review of published papers related to sustainability in BE curricula in the UK HEI context.

The findings reveal that LCF remains at a nascent stage, with no study specifically addressing it. It indicates a knowledge gap that could impact the grounding students require to address current and future sustainability challenges.

The review focused on a specific term, which, while relevant, is very niche. A review of other emerging terms, considering LCF as a theme, and/or empirical data from diverse stakeholders in UK HEIs could enrich the results.

This study provides significant insight into the status of sustainability inclusion in the BE curriculum. It would serve as a reference for stakeholders involved in equipping future BEPs with the requisite knowledge and skills to deal with sustainability challenges that will be consequential beyond the UK context. It would also inform future research.

Sustainability-informed and equipped BEPs will be influential in shaping their immediate surroundings and how people engage with them, which will contribute to developing a more equitable and sustainable society.

Beyond contributing to the discourse on sustainability literacy in UK HEI from an emerging concept perspective, this study would be useful as possibly the first of its kind. Therefore, it fills the theoretical gap and proffers recommendations that would be beneficial for curriculum development.

Amidst all solutions posited to address sustainable construction practices in Nigeria, the implementation plans are repudiated by sustainable barriers. This study examines and confirms the strategy with the most significant impacts on the identified barrier to sustainable construction practice (SCP).

The study deployed a questionnaire survey to evaluate the perspective of 100 construction actors on the barriers and strategies of sustainable construction practice in Nigeria. Factor Analysis was employed to categorize key barriers and strategies into their underlying clusters for further analysis. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to confirm the construct's significant relationship and magnitude, thereby establishing the strategies with the highest impacts on the barriers to sustainable construction practices.

The findings revealed three clusters of barriers and four groups of strategies to SCP, including technopolitic barrier, perception and awareness barrier and sociocultural barrier. For the significant strategies, education and training, stakeholder regulation, incentive support and government and legislative support strategies were established. Overall, education and training strategy was identified as the most dominant and effective strategy to mitigate the barriers of SCP in Nigeria.

The paper establishes education and training as the key strategy to achieving sustainable quest in the AEC industry. The practical implication is that policymakers, educators and professional bodies can harness sustainable knowledge transfer through education and training to improve sustainable construction practices in Nigeria.