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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of priming on people’s risk perceptions and safety decisions in a virtual construction simulator.

Civil engineering students were recruited to interact with a virtual reality (VR) safety simulator. They were divided into four groups covering with and without sound and with and without priming factors. Data were collected on the risks that they perceived and the safety levels of their actions.

It was found that obvious stimuli in a virtual environment with sound help people to recognise more hazards near the location of the stimuli. Sound is helpful in training simulations to create high levels of presence. However, priming factors are not suitable to be added to VR simulators for training purposes. Priming of safe choice results in people taking fewer risks in the VR simulator, but this does not carry over into other situations. Compared to priming effects, being “injured” in a training simulator with sound improves trainees’ ability to make safe decisions.

VR simulation is helpful in construction training because of its unique ability to give trainees exposure to dangerous situations without physical risk. However, the overloading the working memory of users is detrimental to the outcomes. Therefore, the optimum level of complexity in VR simulators should be further studied.

Research into the construction industry’s adoption of modern equipment technologies, such as remote-controlled trucks, excavators and drones, has been neglected in comparison to the significant body of research into the adoption of information technology in construction. Construction research has also neglected to adequately consider the important role of vendors in the innovation diffusion process, focussing mostly on the role of the customer. Set within the context of Australia’s construction industry, the purpose of this paper is to address these gaps in knowledge by exploring the role of customers and vendors in the diffusion of modern equipment technologies into the construction industry.

Using contemporary models of innovation diffusion which move beyond the simple dualistic problem of whether innovation is supply-pushed or demand-pulled, 19 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with customers and vendors involved in two major modern equipment technology trade exhibitions in Australia. This was followed by the collection of documentary data in the form of photos, directory books, marketing material, catalogues, websites and booth and exhibition layouts to validate the proposed model and provide insights into vendor marketing strategies. These data were analysed using both content analysis and principal component analysis (PCA).

According to the PCA and content analysis, vendor’s engagement in the adoption of modern equipment technologies falls into three stages that correspond to three stages in the customer’s adoption process. In the first stage, customers identify possible solutions and recognise new technologies following a previous recognition of a need. Vendors provide facilities for attracting potential customers and letting customers know that their technology exists and can help solve the customer’s problem. The second stage involves customers gaining knowledge about the details of the new technology, and vendors focusing on detailed knowledge transfer through written materials and demonstrations of the functionality of the new technology. In the third stage, customers have specific questions that they want answered to assist them in comparing different vendors and solutions. By this stage, vendors have built a close relationship with the customer and in contrast to earlier stages engage in two-way communication to help the customer’s decision process by addressing specific technical and support-related questions.

The originality and value of this research is in addressing the lack of research in modern equipment technology adoption for building construction and the lack of data on the role of vendors in the process by developing a new empirical framework which describes the stages in the process and the ways that customers and vendors interact at each stage. The results indicate that conceptually, as the construction industry becomes more industrialised, current models of innovation adoption will need to develop to reflect this growing technological complexity and recognise that vendors and customers engage differently in the adoption process, according to the type of technology they wish to adopt.

Research involving interorganizational relationships (IORs) has grown at an impressive rate. Several datasets have been used to understand the nature and performance implications of these relationships. Given the importance of such relationships, we describe a relatively new dataset, Bloomberg SPLC, which contains data regarding the percentage of costs and revenues attributed to suppliers and customers, as well as allows researchers to construct a comprehensive dataset of IORs of buyer–supplier networks. Because of this, Bloomberg SPLC data can be used to uncover new and exciting theoretical and empirical implications. This chapter provides background information about this dataset, guidance on how it can be leveraged, and new theoretical terrain that can be charted to better understand IORs.

This study finds evidence that a stock return is inversely correlated with downside risk, confirming a pattern of risk-aversion behavior. Evidence from testing a stock return's response to a change in economic policy uncertainty indicates a significantly negative effect in the Chinese stock market; this conclusion holds true for testing the impacts of changes in fiscal and monetary policy uncertainties. However, the data produce a mixed effect for the change in fiscal policy uncertainty. The evidence produced from examining the geopolitical effect on the stock market strongly supports the presence of an adverse effect on stock market performance.

The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of research in information and equipment technology adoption in the construction industry. The study also aims to formulate a conceptual framework of the different stages in the adoption process identify gaps in the existing literature and to provide a holistic picture of contemporary research in technology adoption in construction research literature.

A generic framework is initially proposed containing the fundamental concepts of “pre-adoption”, “adoption” and “post-adoption”. The review separates the literature according to three key perspectives: “socio-economic”; “managerial”; and “psychological”. The applicability of the existing approaches to the construction context is discussed, and then a new conceptual framework for construction is developed.

Significant gaps in the understanding of construction technology adoption are identified that provide an interesting agenda for future research. A Construction Technology Adoption Framework is presented, which draws together all of sub-processes involved in technology adoption. This framework covers key activities of both the vendor and the customer.

The study has been restricted to information technologies and construction equipment technology. Other construction technologies, such as formwork systems, have not been examined.

The new framework provides a direction for research into the technology adoption process including key sub-processes and potential research areas. The framework also assists vendors to influence customers’ decision-making processes, and guides new customers in setting up their own decision procedures.

This paper departs from earlier research by focusing on information and equipment technology adoption rather than innovation adoption in general. In addition, this paper considers both sides of the adoption equation (vendor and customer), which is in contrast to previous binary studies which considered one side or the other. It delineates the boundaries of different concepts such as diffusion, adoption, acceptance and implementation, which have been interchangeably used in previous studies. This paper introduces the concept of dissemination to construction, which has previously been investigated in other industries.

Investigates the issue of succession planning and implementation for chief executive officers (CEOs) at philanthropic organizations. Provides a description, definition and classification for philanthropic organizations: family, operating, community, and company‐sponsored. Selects four foundation CEOs representing some of the four types noted in the typology for research. Gives them the same case study to review, read, and respond to five questions targeted to the case study and to their foundation’s philosophy of succession planning. Discusses unique features and uncovers similar features and analyses reactions. Suggests that no foundation CEO interviewees had experience with succession planning or felt the choices in the study appropriate. Also identifies the need to study the process of grant awarding to uncover additional aspects related to understanding power, leadership, and influence in foundations’ policies for choosing leadership and transferring authority in a planned way.

The purpose of this paper is the increase the flexibility of robots used for handling of 3D (food) objects handling by the development and evaluation of a novel 3D Bernoulli gripper.

A new gripper technology have been designed and evaluated. A deformable surface have been used to enable individual product handling. The lift force generated and the force exerted on the product during gripping is measured using a material tester instrument. Various products are tested with the gripper. A experimental/theoretical approach is used to explain the results.

A deformable surface can be used to generate a lift force using the Bernoulli principle on 3D objects. Using a small forming a significant increase in the lift force generated is recorded. Increasing the forming further was shown to have little or even negative effects. The forces exerted on the product during forming was measured to be sufficiently low to avoid product damage.

To be able to improve the grippers lift strength a better model and understanding of the flow is needed.

A novel Bernoulli gripper for 3D Bernoulli gripping have been designed and evaluated. The gripper enables flexible and delicate handling of various product shapes, 3D as well as 2D. Increased utilization of robots in the food industry can be gained.

Value in construction is defined in so many ways and used to mean many different things, often linked to cost, time, objectives and customers that there exists no concise and complete description of what constitutes value within a construction context. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to study the current perceptions of value by the construction players and compare with emerging theories of value in the literature.

Empirical evidence of prevailing perceptions of value within the support role provided by the head contractor (HC) to the subcontractors (SCs) is presented based on two years of action research on six construction sites in Sydney, Australia.

The results show that value management during the construction phase is currently understood as intrinsic to other HC functions. The paper presents a list of activities identified by HCs and SCs as key support services to be performed by the HC to enable efficient progression of construction.

There are limitations in generalising the outcomes of this study to the construction industry. Further research is required in advancing the role of the HC in overall construction organisation.

This paper adds value in advancing the role of the HC in construction. Empirical evidence of value‐based management closely following the current perceptions of the construction players compared to managing value as a separate function is presented.

To provide a decision support tool for long‐term management of subcontractor supply chain for achieving better quality in construction.

Defects on three construction projects are investigated through direct observation, document analysis, and interviews. A method to analyse and present defects information as an aid to decision making in relation to subcontractor supply chain management is proposed, and its application is illustrated by using the information obtained from the study.

The importance of managing the subcontractor supply chain to reduce the incidence of defects is established. The nature and extent of the defects, along with what caused them, are discussed. Method for conversion of raw data into a decision support tool is presented.

The data collection method was limited in that it was not based on continuous full‐time observation. Such presence by independent observers for full duration of the project would provide more accurate information.

A useful tool for the construction industry in view of the fact that most of the construction work is now done by subcontractors and the head contractors primarily act as project managers.

The concept of using Pareto analysis/histogram for managing quality has been around for a considerable period of time. This paper converts it into a more efficient and useful decision support tool.