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This paper aims to identify how a public client’s use of control systems (process, output and social control) affect innovation possibilities in construction projects.

Semi-structured interviews about six infrastructure projects were conducted to identify respondents’ views on innovation possibilities. These possibilities were then analyzed from an organizational control perspective within principal–agent relationships between the Swedish Transport Administration (STA) and their contractors.

How the client uses control systems affects innovation possibilities. Relying on process control could negatively affect innovation opportunities, whereas output control could have a positive influence. In addition, social control seems to have a weak effect, as the STA appears not to use social control to facilitate joint innovation. Public clients must comply with the Public Procurement Act and, therefore, retain the requirements specified in the tendering documents. Much of the steering of the execution is connected to the ex ante phase (before signing the contract), which affects innovation possibilities in the design and execution phases for the contractor.

This study was conducted with only one client, thus limiting its generalizability. However, the findings provide an important stepping stone to further investigation into balancing control systems and creating innovation possibilities in a principal–agent relationship.

Although public procurement has increasingly been emphasized as a major potential source of innovation, studying how a public client’s use of organizational control systems affects innovation possibilities in the construction sector has received scant attention.

Water is a critical and contentious resource in California, hence any changes in reservoir management requires coordination among many basin stakeholders. The Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO) pilot project at Lake Mendocino, California explored the viability of using weather forecasts to alter the operations of a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reservoir. The pilot project demonstrated FIRO's ability to improve water supply reliability, but also revealed the key role of a collaborative Steering Committee. Because Lake Mendocino's Viability Assessment did not explore the features of the Steering Committee, this study aims to examine the relationships and interactions between Steering Committee members that supported FIRO's implementation at Lake Mendocino.

The project identified 17 key project participants who spoke at a FIRO workshop or emerged through chain-referrals. Using semi-structured interviews with these participants, the project examined the dynamics of human interactions that enabled the successful multi-institutional and multi-criteria innovation as analyzed through text-coding.

The results reveal the importance for FIRO Steering Committee members to understand the limitations and constraints of stakeholder counterparts at other organizations, the importance of building and safeguarding relationships, and the role of trust and belonging between members. The lessons learned suggest several interventions to support successful group collaboration dynamics for future FIRO projects.

This study identifies features of the Steering Committee that contributed to FIRO's success by supporting collaborative negotiations of infrastructure operations within a multi-institutional and multi-criteria context.

The aim of this paper is to compare the audit and accountability arrangements of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) internationally.

Building on a theorisation of regulatory space, extended by new audit spaces of public audit, the scope of the research is the 196 SAIs that are full members of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). The study is based on documentation review, workshops with a steering panel, a survey of all SAIs (response rate of 64%, being 125 of 196 members), workshops with the seven regions of INTOSAI and discussion at Congress.

The paper suggests that the audit and accountability arrangements for SAIs is underpinned by INTOSAI's global voice, a country's regulatory space and a SAIs organization, capacity and scope that are themes used to structure the comparison. The results show there is diversity in the organization, capacities and scope of SAIs, but also an opportunity for recognising the positive potential of INTOSAI in fulfilling its global voice leveraged from the results of its work with its regions and members.

This is the most comprehensive research study of SAIs and the research underpinning this study enables SAIs to compare themselves regionally and internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise our understanding of public value accounting (PVA) by studying the use and usefulness of performance measurements (PM) as a management tool. The authors do this from a perspective in which they address the complexity of various (sometimes conflicting) assessments of performance measurement and management (PMM) by different stakeholders.

An interpretative case study using qualitative methods. The paper is based on 30 interviews conducted in 2018 and 2019 with respondents working with PMM at different levels, such as politicians, officials and health-care professionals. The study context was Region Stockholm (RS) in Sweden and its health-care division.

PMs become an instrumental tool for PMM, which led to output being promoted above outcome. The authors show that there is a conceptual shortcoming in the discussion of PVA, as the effort needed to achieve outcome-based information might exceed the ability of an organisation to deliver it. The authors address the importance of studying the interaction among different stakeholders, including politicians, the public and media, in research on PVA, as well as possible power relationships among stakeholders.

The authors contribute to the growing research on PVA and its call for more empirical research by offering a more nuanced interpretation of PVA activities. The authors do this by studying PMM and the nature of these activities in a public sector organisation from a multiple-stakeholder perspective.

Through this study, the aim is to provide reference for the improvement of CEO related theories, the reform of internal governance mechanisms and compensation systems in enterprises, and ultimately contribute to economic and social development and the achievement of dual carbon goals.

In the context of accelerating the implementation of the “dual carbon” goal and promoting sustainable economic and social development, this paper builds a panel data model based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 to empirically test the impact of CEO stability on green innovation and total factor productivity of enterprises.

The results show that CEO stability has a positive role in promoting enterprise total factor productivity and green innovation and enterprise green innovation also has a positive role in promoting total factor productivity; Heterogeneity testing found that CEO stability has no significant impact on green innovation in state-owned enterprises. Corporate green innovation has a partial mesomeric effect between CEO stability and total factor productivity; The proportion of independent directors has a negative moderating effect on CEO stability and corporate green innovation, while equity incentive has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between CEO stability, corporate total factor productivity and green innovation.

First, it develops the research on CEO stability and its economic consequences. Second, it expands the impact of CEO stability on heterogeneous enterprises. Third, provides new ideas for the reform of internal governance mechanism and salary system of enterprises.

This viewpoint article explores the transformative capabilities of large language models (LLMs) like the Chat Generative Pre-training Transformer (ChatGPT) within the property valuation industry. It particularly accentuates the pivotal role of prompt engineering in facilitating valuation reporting and advocates for adopting the “Red Book” compliance Chain-of-thought (COT) prompt engineering as a gold standard for generating AI-facilitated valuation reports.

The article offers a high-level examination of the application of LLMs in real estate research, highlighting the essential role of prompt engineering for future advancements in generative AI. It explores the collaborative dynamic between valuers and AI advancements, emphasising the importance of precise instructions and contextual cues in directing LLMs to generate accurate and reproducible valuation outcomes.

Integrating LLMs into property valuation processes paves the way for efficiency improvements and task automation, such as generating reports and drafting contracts. AI-facilitated reports offer unprecedented transparency and elevate client experiences. The fusion of valuer expertise with prompt engineering ensures the reliability and interpretability of valuation reports.

Delineating the types and versions of LLMs used in AI-generated valuation reports encourage the adoption of transparency best practices within the industry. Valuers, as expert prompt engineers, can harness the potential of AI to enhance efficiency, accuracy and transparency in the valuation process, delivering significant benefits to a broad array of stakeholders.

The article elucidates the substantial impact of prompt engineering in leveraging LLMs within the property industry. It underscores the importance of valuers training their unique GPT models, enabling customisation and reproducibility of valuation outputs. The symbiotic relationship between valuers and LLMs is identified as a key driver shaping the future of property valuations.

In the construction industry, various parties are involved in a project. Consequently, claims and disputes are inevitable in this industry. This paper aims to develop Integrated project delivery (IPD) practices including early involvement of stakeholders and multiparty contracts which its combination with advanced technologies such as blockchain can lead to better dispute management and improve the whole construction process.

Based on literature review, the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for IPD contacts were identified, and three formats of IPD contracts were selected, and the dispute resolution process of them has been analyzed. Then, based on blockchain review, a conceptual blockchain-based dispute management (BDM) model was generated for ADR in IPD. Model validation was done by an interview. Experts were asked to compare the BDM model with the traditional system regarding the ADR duration.

Analyses of the collected data from the experts demonstrated that the BDM model has better function in terms of time and cost for ADR process when the project is facing serious and considerable number of disputes. The relation between blockchain technology (BCT) and building information modeling (BIM) has been examined through a framework, and the ability of the proposed model for administrating dispute resolution process has been verified using four different scenarios of construction claims that show the system can run successfully.

The current study proposes a truthful model, reliable framework to address the problem of project dispute management in IPD contracts. The system combines the ability to being unchangeable and the reliability characteristics of BCT with informative and automation aspects of BIM together to improve dispute resolution issue in the IPD system.

To research involvement of healthcare staff in the UK and identify practical organisational and policy solutions to improve and boost capacity of the existing workforce to conduct research.

A mixed-method study presenting three work packages here: secondary analysis of levels of staff research activity, funding, academic outputs and workforce among healthcare organisations in the United Kingdom; 39 Research and Development lead and funder interviews; an online survey of 11 healthcare organisations across the UK, with 1,016 responses from healthcare staff included for analysis; and 51 interviews of healthcare staff in different roles from six UK healthcare organisations.

Interest in research involvement is strong and widespread but hampered by a lack of systematic organisational support despite national policies and strategies to increase staff engagement in research. While useful, these external strategies have limited universal success due to lack of organisational support. Healthcare organisations should embed research within organisational and human resources policies and increase the visibility of research through strategic organisational goals and governance processes. A systems-based approach is needed.

The research gathered data from a limited number of NHS trusts but these were purposively sampled to provide a range of different acute/community health service organisations in different areas. But data was therefore more detailed and nuanced due to a more in-depth approach.

The findings are relevant for developing policies and practice within healthcare organisations to support research engagement. The findings also set out key policy and strategic recommendations that will support greater research engagement.

Increased research activity and engagement in healthcare providers improves healthcare outcomes for patients.

This is a large scale (UK-wide) study involving a broad range of healthcare staff, with good engagement of nurses, midwives and Allied Healthcare Professionals who have not been previously achieved. This allowed valuable analysis of under-researched groups and comparisons by professional groups. The findings highlight the need for tailored action to embed research reporting, skills, professional development and infrastructure into organisational policies, strategies and systems, along with broader system-wide development.

There has been limited research on why football clubs contribute to charity. This paper examines how football clubs and their charitable conduits report information when discussing their connectedness. In addition, it explores reasons why, and the extent to which, football clubs support altruism via such charitable vehicles.

Case studies of four major football teams (Manchester City/Manchester United in England and AC Milan/Inter Milan in Italy) are discussed, with formal reports of the clubs and their associated charitable conduits being analysed.

Boundaries between the clubs and their charitable conduits are frequently blurred. Evidence suggests that acknowledging the co-existence of different factors may help to understand what is reported by these organisations and address some of the caveats in terms of autonomy and probity of their activities and reporting practices.

The research uses case studies of four major ‘powerhouses’ of the game and their associated charitable spinoffs. While this is innovative and novel, expanding the research to investigate more clubs and their charitable endeavours would allow greater generalisations.

The study provides material that can be used to reflect on the very topical subject of ‘sportswashing’. This has the potential to input to deliberations relating to the future governance of the game.

The paper explores relationships between businesses and charities/nonprofits in a sector so far little investigated from a charitable accountability perspective. It suggests that motives for engaging in charitable activity and highlighting such engagement may extend beyond normal altruism or warm-glow emotions.

Surrogate models are extensively used to substitute real models which are expensive to evaluate in the time-dependent reliability analysis. Normally, different surrogate models have different scopes of application. However, information is often insufficient for analysts to select the most appropriate surrogate model for a specific application. Thus, the result precited by individual surrogate model tends to be suboptimal or even inaccurate. Ensemble model can effectively deal with the above concern. This work aims to study the application of ensemble model for reliability analysis of time-independent problems.

In this work, a method of reliability analysis for time-dependent problems based on ensemble learning of surrogate models is developed. The ensemble of surrogate models includes Kriging, radial basis function, and support vector machine. The prediction is approximated by the weighted average model. The ensemble learning of surrogate models is updated by finding and adding the sample points with large prediction errors throughout the entire procedure.

The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by several examples. The results show that the ensemble of surrogate models can effectively propagate the uncertainty of time-varying problems, and evaluate the reliability with high prediction accuracy and computational efficiency.

This work proposes an adaptive learning framework for the uncertainty propagation of time-dependent problems based on the ensemble of surrogate models. Compared with individual surrogate models, the ensemble model not only saves the effort of selecting an appropriate surrogate model especially when the knowledge of unknown problem is lacking, but also improves the prediction accuracy and computational efficiency.