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The provision of school assets and associated services is essential for achieving a country's educational outcomes. Building and managing schools usually features large component of operation, multiple groups of stakeholders, relatively simple design and technical requirements and tight timeframes to be completed to meet the open date. Internationally, public-private partnerships (PPPs) were introduced as innovative delivery models to bring forward school projects. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the PPP experiences in the school sector focusing on the critical dimensions impacting on the viability of using PPPs for school development.

Comparative case studies of two school PPP projects based in Australia and New Zealand were adopted as the main research method. Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders were used as primary data collection method.

By examining the procedural and organisational arrangements from a comparative perspective, the research finds that, for a successful school PPP, the followings are critical: sound business case development; size-adjusted and streamlined tendering process; localised private sector partner and streamlined finance; extensive stakeholder engagement; and effective governance and organisational structure and enhanced partnership.

The findings provide practical implications for policy makers and public procuring authorities initiating school projects and private entities seeking investment opportunities. By implementing the strategies derived from this research and adjusting to their own social and economic environment, governments and industry would be at a better position to develop and manage schools using PPPs.

This study aims to develop a hierarchical reliability framework to evaluate the service delivery performance of education public–private partnerships (PPPs) effectively and efficiently during long-term operations.

The research design included development and test phases. In the development phase, three performance layers, i.e. indicator, component and system, in the education service delivery system were identified. Then, service component reliability was computed through first order reliability method (FORM). Finally, the reliability of the service system was obtained using dynamic component weightings. A PPP school example in Australia was set up in the test phase, where performance indicators were collected from relevant contract documents and performance data were simulated under three assumptive scenarios.

The example in the test phase yielded good results for the developed framework in evaluating uncertainties of service delivery performance for education PPPs. Potentially underperforming services from the component to the system level at dynamic timepoints were identified, and effective preventative maintenance strategies were developed.

This research enriches reliability theory and performance evaluation research on education PPPs. First, a series of performance evaluation indicators are constructed for assessing the performance of the service delivery of the education PPP operations. Then, a reliability-based framework for service components and system is developed to predict service performance of the PPP school operations with consideration of a range of uncertainties during project delivery.

The developed framework was illustrated with a real-world case study. It demonstrates that the developed reliability-based framework could potentially provide the practitioners of the public sector with a basis for developing effective preventative maintenance strategies with the aim of prolonging the service life of the PPP schools.

Evaluating education PPPs is challenging as it involves long-term measurement of various service components under uncertainty. The developed reliability-based framework is a valuable tool to ensure that reliability is maintained throughout the service life of education PPPs in the presence of uncertainty.

Sustainable houses remain at a low rate among the housing stock in New Zealand. Government, industry and the public are wanting to deliver homes that are energy and water efficient, healthy and adaptive to the climate. The purpose of this paper is to find out the driving forces influencing the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand.

Comparative case studies of Hobsonville Point, Wynyard Quarter and Long Bay were adopted as the primary research method. Semi-structured interviews and an online survey were both conducted for data collection to increase the validity of the research.

Central and local governments were the most effective driving forces for encouraging sustainable housing. Corporate brand and leadership were critical drivers for public-owned companies, whereas private-owned companies were mainly driven by local governments’ policies and strategies. Social awareness and client demand were increasing to influence the sustainable housing, but there was still room for improvement.

The developers can learn from the sustainable development frameworks to set the sustainability goals. Policymakers can draw lessons from the public sectors’ experiences to carry out new policies and inspire the private sectors to follow. Besides, the basic framework could help the further study to use a larger sample size and more rigorous statistical analysis to explore the synergies among the identified drivers.

This paper provides the useful information on how to promote the uptake of sustainable housing in New Zealand.

Special purpose companies issue stocks to raise money to finance development of real estate and infrastructure. The advantage of a stock issue is that it does not entail financial cost such as interest on a loan. However, financing obtained in this way has been insufficient due to low interest by investors because of the large variability of the stocks’ earnings rates. The purpose of this paper is to propose methods to improve investment earnings rate for financing.

The proposed methods are Markowitz’s model and a combination of Markowitz’s model and Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed methods were verified by comparison with actual earnings rate.

The earnings rate was increased by as much as 23 percent over the actual value. Then, earnings rate compared with risk was analyzed using the Sharpe ratio which is a method to measure investment performance. The performance was also increased by as much as 23 percent over the actual value. The proposed method can help activate investment by increasing investors’ interest in the stock issue.

This study verified that Markowitz’s portfolio model, which is used for econometrics, could be applied for financing of construction project. It is valuable because the previous studies did not propose the method for financing.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.