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The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies between post-end-of-life of building (PEoLB) concepts and operations to achieve sustainability.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using 65 articles published between 2006 and 2017, and it has been subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis.

The descriptive analysis revealed that the majority of the articles were about (60 per cent) PEoLB operations, followed by (23 per cent) PEoLB concepts. Only 17 per cent of the articles have dealt with PEoLB-related strategic approaches. The thematic analysis elaborated on the literature development; interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations; impediments of introducing sustainability on these operations, remedial measures and information-based strategic approaches to achieve sustainability. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework for sustainable PEoLB operations is proposed. Furthermore, four areas of potential future research are discussed.

This study presents a future research agenda including best practices to plan PEoLB operations and the development of optimisation models, risk management and information-based strategic approaches.

The proposed conceptual research framework triggers and nurtures potential pathways to introduce sustainable PEoLB operations under sound information flow. This could create a basis for future empirical studies in filling the identified gaps in literature. The framework could also assist practitioners in mitigating risks associated with transportation, storing and contamination of salvaged materials through enhanced information flow. In addition, the framework provides some managerial guidance to organisations seeking ways of establishing sustainability during reverse logistics (RL) operations.

This paper presents an SLR of an emerging area of research that encapsulates closed-loop supply chain through sustainable RL operations. The study highlights the interrelationships between PEoLB concepts and operations. It develops a robust approach to effectively manage the PEoLB operations underpinned by a sound information flow to facilitate sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify and rank the challenges influencing the delivery of the housing public-private partnership (HPPP) in Tanzania; and second, to suggest solutions in the form of a conceptual public-private partnership (PPP) framework model that will address the identified challenges and boost the chances of success.

Using a convergent parallel (concurrent) mixed method approach, data were collected from 28 stakeholders involved with HPPP projects in Tanzania using a hand-delivered and e-mail survey and 13 semi-structured interviews with public and private sector respondents. The quantitative data included subjecting the 19 challenges as identified from the literature to parametric tests such as one-sample t-tests and descriptive statistics tests such as measures of central tendencies and frequency analysis through Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0). Qualitative data employed content analysis. The research was further underpinned by a number of theoretical perspectives such as Gidden’s structuration theory, contingency theory, relational and equity theory.

The top five ranked challenges influencing the delivery of HPPP were “inadequate PPP skills and knowledge”; “poor contracting and tendering documents”; “inadequate project management”; “inadequate legal framework”; and “misinformation on financial capacity of private partners”. The least six ranked and most significant challenges based on the one-sample (single) t-tests were as follows: “Poor risk allocation”; “inexperienced private partner”; “unequal qualification and contributions of expertise”; “poor enabling environment to attract competent partners”; “inadequate mechanisms for recovery of private investors’ capital”; and “high costs in procuring PPP projects”. The qualitative study further confirmed the challenges and cited the reason for the failure of joint venture projects as the lack of motivation for undertaking similar PPP projects. Despite the increased awareness of PPP projects and associated marginal benefits, the main impediment to the uptake and delivery of PPP housing projects remained the lack of skills and expertise.

The proposed framework model is not yet tested, but since this paper is part of the ongoing research, the next stage involves the testing and validation of the model. Future studies could test the applicability of the proposed framework in other HPPP projects in Tanzania, and in other similar developing countries. Second, the validated framework can contribute towards addressing similar challenges as well as providing guidance. The proposed framework model is not yet tested, but since this paper is part of the ongoing research, the next stage involves the testing and validation of the model. Furthermore, recommendation for future research is to test the alignment of the identified challenges to the proposed remedial solutions across the five phases within the proposed PPP framework with a number of case studies.

The identified challenges were used to form the basis of the framework presented in this paper. Furthermore, these provide useful information, thus leading to increased awareness to enable successful delivery of HPPP in Tanzania. Similarly, both the government and policy makers could use the findings as the basis for re-examining the existing PPP policy and regulations, and reflecting on the existing situation with a view to improving the delivery of future HPPP projects.

The empirical study is among the first that identifies and ranks the challenges of PPP for housing projects delivery within the Tanzanian context. The identification of the challenges enabled their ranking, resulting in the mapping out of the most critical challenges. Furthermore, using the Gidden’s structuration theory, the study illustrates how institution mechanisms (structures) address these delivery challenges, thus influencing the implementation of HPPP in Tanzania, and how individual stakeholders (human agents or agency) are able to make choices (advocated solutions) in dealing with the challenges. More so, these constraints (challenges) as identified and viewed through the contingency and equity theoretical lenses form the foundation for developing the PPP conceptual framework. The proposed framework would thus serve as a mechanism for providing practical solutions as well as reducing the level of severity of the identified challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the synergies among reverse logistics supply chain (RLSC), quality management (QM) and information management (IM) concepts to enhance the effectiveness of demolition waste management (DWM) practices.

A systematic literature review was conducted using 70 articles published between the years of 2006 and 2017, which were subjected to descriptive and thematic analysis.

The descriptive analysis established that the RLSC concept was dealt within the majority of the publications (61 per cent), followed by concepts related to quality in RLSC (24 per cent). Only 14 per cent of the articles were based on IM concepts related to RLSC. Quality and information are interrelated in the effective implementation of RLSC. The thematic analysis demonstrated that there is a need for using quality parameters in a regulatory environment in an information-based environment. Based on the findings, future research directions were developed.

The study encourages researchers to identify novel directions by combining these three concepts. The study developed a future research agenda regarding use of building information modelling (BIM) for existing buildings under novel technologies; analysis of secondary market demand and supply; and assessment of cost and safety management with quality in a BIM-enabled environment.

The practical implications include the application of sustainable management principles based on stakeholders and the regulatory environment.

Integration of the three concepts is an emerging area. This integration developed a robust approach to achieve QM in RLSC operations under a sound information flow enabling the optimisation of DWM.

This study aims to investigate and ranks the critical factors influencing the bid or no-bid decision and their importance for the indigenous small building contractors within the Tanzanian construction industry.

An interpretivist epistemological design was adopted to extensively manually review and search extant literature on bid or no-bid decision-making criteria. A total of 30 most common bid or no-bid decision-making criteria were identified. These were included in a questionnaire survey data collection instrument. The survey was distributed to 40 small indigenous (local) building contractors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In total, 33 responses were received. Response data was subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results show a disparity of ranking of the 30 bid/no-bid criteria factors among the two grades of small contractors, with 11 factors having statistically significant differences (p = < 0.05). Based on the overall sample, the most highly ranked seven factors in ascending order were: availability of capital; financial capacity of the client; project size; profitability; project type; need of work; and current workload. The following were the least ranked: tax liability; the degree of safety; availability of other projects; availability of labor; bidding document price; and uncertainty because of weather conditions. Availability of capital and financial capacity of the client were jointly ranked as the most important by Class VI contractors. In comparison, availability of capital and need of study were rated highly for Class VII contractors.

The sample consisted of indigenous small building contractors in one industry operating in Tanzania only and did not include the perceptions of the foreign contractors based in Dar es Salaam. Future studies are required to expand the current research and investigate this specific aspect further.

The identified “bid/no-bid criteria” information will allow indigenous small building contractors to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their bidding decision-making process. Emergent findings will enable said contractors to: better fit into the competitive construction business environment; increase their awareness of existing decision-making practices; and develop appropriate strategies for evaluation of opportunities encountered. Cumulatively, these findings benefit small indigenous building contractors by increasing their understanding of the factors influencing bid decision.

The study represents the first empirical study in Tanzania on the critical factors influencing the bid or no-bid decision among the indigenous small building contractors, which face fierce competition from foreign contractors.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and rank the critical factors influencing the bid/no bid criteria and their importance in the Australian construction industry.

The research study has been undertaken by conducting an extensive literature review on bid/no bid decision-making criteria. As a result, the researchers identified 26 most common bid/no bid decision-making criteria that are accordingly grouped into five distinct categories, namely, “project”, “market”,“contractor”, “client” and “contract”. The literature review was followed by a national survey that was designed and utilised by the researchers to collect data for this purpose. The survey was sent to potential 450 Australian construction companies in various locations and responses were received from 81 Australian construction companies. Response data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Kruskal Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to detect significant differences between the mean score grouped according to the organisation size (contract value).

The descriptive and empirical analysis demonstrated a disparity of ranking of the 26 bid/no bid criteria factors among the groups; however no statistically significant differences among the 26 bid/no criteria factors despite the absolute differences in the rankings and mean scores in the following four factors: (1) “bidding condition”, (2) “strength/weaknesses”, (3) “contract payment terms” and (4) “number of competitors/bidders”. Based on the overall sample, the highly ranked four factors were “client financial capability”, “project risk”, “project future benefits and profitability” and “number of competitors/bidders”. The following were the least ranked: “contractors’ financial situation”, “project duration” and “contractors’ material availability”. “Client financial capability”and “project risk” were jointly ranked as the most important by large, whereas “client financial capability” was also rated highly for smaller Australian construction contractors (ACCs). The medium ACCs had “project risk”as highly ranked.

The majority of the participants were small construction contractors in Australia. The reason is that the researchers were not aware of the contractors’ size prior to inviting them for participation in the research study. Second, the findings may not generalise to other industries or to organisations operating in other countries.

The identified “bid/no bid criteria” increase the awareness of existing decision-making practices and play a critical role in the future decisions of the construction companies, where decision makers need to evaluate the next opportunities encountered. Furthermore, knowledge and possession of these identified “bid/no bid” criteria would enable contractors to select a project with a higher probability of success in the future, which will accordingly result in long-term financial benefits and higher performance. Finally, the awareness of these factors could contribute to changing the contractor’s behaviours when bidding in a competitive environment or market conditions.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge on tendering and bidding practices among contractors in Australia, an area previously under explored. Second, this study provides some insights on the factors influencing the bid/no bid decisions among the ACCs.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate strategies that external stakeholders can employ to affect construction project outcomes and, second, to identify essential requirements for utilising each strategy.

A new theoretical framework of stakeholder influence strategies was proposed and applied. The research design is a multi-case study, comprising four cases in the construction industry in Vietnam.

Seven specific strategies were found, including inputs withholding, inputs compromising, communication, direct action, coalition building, conflict escalation and credibility building. When possessing project inputs, stakeholders can affect a project directly via a withholding or compromising strategy. Communication is available to those who have basic communicating skills; however, direct action is only employed by groups that include a large number of members. Objectors must have common interests or goals with their potential allies for using coalition building. Conflict escalation is restricted to communities having distinctive characteristics which can be used to create new problems sensibly, while credibility building is used by parties possessing adequate resources and expertise.

This study’s generalisability may be limited by the main source of data and the types of projects in the selected cases.

This study provides directions for project managers to predict stakeholder influence by taking project inputs and utilisation requirements of the strategies into consideration.

This study is one of the first investigations on stakeholder-attributes-related requirements for utilising influence strategies in projects.

The acknowledged mode of securing work by contractors is through the bidding process. However, the bidding decisions undertaken by some indigenous contractors in developing countries are fraught with challenges that often engender bidding practices (such as collusion through price fixing and intentional lower bidding) and threaten business survival. Therefore, in the quest to better understand these challenges and viable advocate solutions for overcoming them, this paper aims to identify the key challenges impacting the bid decision process by small indigenous building contractors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and establish the strength of their relationship between the pairs of key challenges.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify nine challenges impacting the bid decision of indigenous building contractors in Tanzania, which were used to design a questionnaire survey. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, mean score, inferential statistics (One sample t-tests), Kendall’s concordance and correlation analysis.

Challenges identified from a literature review were empirically tested using survey responses accrued from 33 participating small indigenous building contractors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The findings illustrate that lack of liquidity, profit returns, lack of equipment, lack of experience of several works and procurement procedures are perceived as being the five most critical challenges. Project location, site accessibility and lack of labour were least critical. The major finding from the correlation analysis was the existence of the strong and positive correlation between “project location” and “site accessibility”.

The study is limited by its sample and geographical settings which focussed and confined the results on one country, Tanzania. However, the findings can be considered as important for other developing countries wishing to gain insights into the challenges impacting bid decisions.

Measures for addressing the identified challenges impacting the bidding decisions of the indigenous small building contractors would be undertaken. The findings will enable contractors to not only reconcile the challenges with the industry and in so doing benefit both themselves and the clients but also enable them to be better prepared to deliver contractual obligations and generate socio-economic wealth. Government and policymakers will also be able to appropriately develop macro interventions for managing these challenges, which could be custom-tailored to indigenous small contractors. Finally, improving the ability of local firms to compete in the construction industry has been recognised as having the potential of advancing socio-economic development within the comity of developing countries.

The study enhances government, client and practitioners’ understanding of the challenges affecting the bidding practices among the indigenous building contractors in Tanzania. This area of investigation has previously been under explored particularly sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this study is to systematically analyse and synthesise the existing research published on offsite manufacturing/construction. The study aims to highlight and associate the core elements for adopting the offsite concept in different construction contexts. This ultimately facilitates the enhancement of the offsite uptake.

The research study was carried out through a systematic literature review (SLR). The SLR was conducted to identify and understand the existing themes in the offsite research landscape, evaluate contributions and compile knowledge, thereby identifying potential directions of future research. The grand electronic databases were explored to gather literature on the offsite concept, lean and agile principles and simulation. A total of 62 related articles published between 1992 and 2015 have been included in this study. The relevant literature was systematically analysed and synthesised to present the emerging offsite themes.

The descriptive and thematic analyses presented in this paper have identified related offsite research studies that have contributed to setting a firm foundation of the offsite concept in different construction contexts. Each of the 62 articles was examined for achieving the aim and objectives of this study, the method of data collection and coverage of offsite themes. The results of the analyses revealed that the articles mostly provide information on the offsite concept and its definitions (53 per cent) and offsite barriers and/or drivers (27 per cent). However, limited attention has been paid to the integration of lean and agile principles (13 per cent) and simulation (7 per cent) within the offsite concept, which are therefore more open to research within the offsite concept.

The literature review highlights the main themes and components of the offsite construction concept. This forms a solid basis and motivation for researchers and practitioners to build on to enhance the uptake of the offsite concept in different contexts. This study also presents a research roadmap within the offsite concept, along with a recommendation for further research to be conducted using the research framework proposed in this study. The framework could lead to validation of using simulation to integrate lean and agile principles within the offsite concept.

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature related to offsite construction in different contexts. The emerging components, that is, offsite definitions, drivers and/or barriers, lean and agile principles and simulation have been highlighted and discussed thematically. A research framework that enables pursuit of the integration of lean and agile principles offsite through the lens of simulation has been proposed. The framework is expected to open up new opportunities on the effectiveness of offsite development in different contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore sourcing strategies for facilities management services using core-competency theory of outsourcing. The aim is to develop a screening framework for deciding the suitability of outsourcing versus in-house delivery for these services based on three levels of managerial functions prevalent in a typical commercial organization.

A questionnaire survey was administered for facilities managers in Sri Lanka to investigate the relative importance of these managerial functions for facilities management services and obtain their opinions on the best delivery mode. The managerial functions were derived from a literature review and verified using three semi-structured interviews prior to the questionnaire survey design.

The findings showed that facilities management services that are aligned to strategic functions are suitable for in-house delivery, while those that are aligned to tactical and operational functions for outsourcing.

Further studies should be conducted and extended to other types of organizations beyond commercial ones. Secondly, the quantitative study employed a smaller sample (n = 40), and the survey items were based on the review of literature which was verified using a very small number of interviews (n = 3).

The proposed framework can be utilized when choosing the best facilities management approach for commercial organizations in developing countries such as Sri Lanka.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the subject of facilities management by exploring the context in Sri Lankan which has not previously been done.

The Built Operate Transfer (BOT) model has been increasingly used in transportation investments in Vietnam. However, there is still an inadequacy of risk management applications in these projects and lack of research in this area. The study aims to improve the success of projects implemented through the BOT model in Vietnam.

The study followed a sequential design including interviews and a questionnaire survey to investigate the perception of stakeholders from public and private sector regarding the probability of occurrence and the severity of impact of risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam. Quantitative data from the survey was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics to explore the priority of risks as well as the differences in the perception between the public and private sectors.

The results showed that the top five most significant risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam are: (1) problems with land acquisition and compensation, (2) inappropriate location of toll booths, (3) public resistance to pay, (4) high toll rate and (5) lack of cash flow. With the exception of “lack of cash flow,” there were no statistically significant differences in the rankings of individual risks between the public and private sector. In addition, there is a significant positive correlation in the overall rankings of all risks for both sectors.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring the probability of occurrence and the severity of the impact of risks in BOT transportation projects in a developing country like Vietnam which has not been extensively explored yet. Second, it provides an insight into the perception of stakeholders from the public and private sector regarding the level of risks which is very useful for potential stakeholders in making decisions when they intend to participate in such partnerships. Third, it enables the Vietnamese government to establish suitable policies related to such projects. These contributions are very important in improving risk management in PPPs in developing countries.