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Early contractor involvement (ECI) faces many barriers when it is implemented in public procurement, given that it is different from traditional business practices. Primarily, public owners face a major challenge, as they should treat all bidders equally. The purpose of this paper is to explore suitable ECI approaches that public owners could use.

In addition to a literature and document study, 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key personnel from 11 cases selected from Norwegian public bridge projects were carried out.

In all, 23 unique approaches of ECI were identified during this research (16 from literature and 7 new from case projects). The findings provide a new direction to ECI through introducing new approaches of ECI from the case projects.

This paper for the first time presents several alternatives of ECI approaches for public owners with the intention of illustrating ECI is actually possible in the public project procurement. Furthermore, it presents for the first time success factors of ECI with the intention of increasing the understanding of ECI concept from a public procurement perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to report on studies on the ethics in the design phase in Norwegian construction projects. The ambition is to establish a descriptive picture of ethical challenges practitioners meet in the design phase in order to raise awareness among them.

In addition to a literature review and a document study of ethical frameworks within the industry, interviews with key participants were carried out according to a qualitative approach. The study was undertaken in order to address framework conditions for handling ethically challenging situations, challenges of an ethical nature practitioners commonly encounter in the design phase and finally the structural (systemic) reasons for such challenges.

This research finds indications of actors manoeuvring in the design phase for own benefit at the expense of other actors. The findings equally indicate that the design phase poses significant challenges in light of tender documents pricing and exploiting cost reimbursement contracts. In some of the projects examined, participants shifted loyalty after novation contracting and they actively tried to steer the decision processes in their own favour.

There does in fact seem to be perceptions of a room of manoeuvre between what is unlawful and what is ethically sound in this phase.

To achieve the shift towards sustainable construction the industry must change the project delivery methods used. Therefore, this paper reports on a high-performance building project that implemented a collaborative project delivery method through the examination of the following research questions: RQ1: What were the most important contractual, cultural and organisational elements studied in the collaborative project delivery method? RQ2: What were the effects of the studied elements?

A longitudinal case study approach was adopted. As for means of data collection, a document review, semi-structured interviews, and observations was conducted. A total of 20 observations (App. 80 h, 175 pages of notes) and 12 interviews (App. 20 h, 100 pages of notes) with project participants was conducted.

The analysis indicates that if attention is paid to task, team and individual needs through contractual, cultural and organisational elements, this will affect the development of an integrated team.

We demonstrate that the effects of the elements are shown through their achievement in creating and sustaining an integrated team of inter-organisational participants working in a collaborative environment.

It provides a better understanding of how a collaborative project delivery method for the design phase emphasises team integration. We demonstrate that while the principal sets the contractual boundaries by deciding the contractual elements, the agent should be intentional in the selection and use of organizational and cultural elements.

The paper suggests that it is not enough to just have contractual elements implemented. Consequently, this insight suggests that managers should be attentive to the untapped potential that lies within organisational and cultural elements.

Early contractor involvement (ECI) faces many barriers because it differs from traditional business practices. Public owners, especially, face a major challenge because they must comply with international and national legislation. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that illustrates the various approaches that public project owners can take to implement ECI.

In addition to a literature review, three groups of case studies were carried out. The case studies were based on 54 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key personnel from 21 Norwegian public projects and document study.

In all, 25 approaches to ECI were identified during the research. Twelve of these were used in the cases studied.

There are several approaches to ECI that are suitable for public owners. However, the contractor’s contribution depends on which approach is implemented and how it is implemented.

As original contribution, this study presents a novel framework that defines options for implementing ECI in public projects. Furthermore, this paper provides insights on how ECI can be implemented in public projects based on Norwegian experiences. Although the empirical data of the study is limited to Norwegian public projects, this study contributes to knowledge about how to implement ECI internationally.

Transaction costs in projects can be reduced through improved collaboration between contractors and clients. The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call for further research on the framework suggested by Li et al. (2015) who presented 26 factors that determine project transaction costs. The objective is to empirically test the framework to identify factors that have the greatest influence on project collaboration so that practitioners can prioritize their efforts on the most salient factors that will improve collaboration and reduce transaction costs.

The paper employed interviews with 38 project practitioners from three different industries in Norway. The respondents had in average 20 years of professional experience.

The quality of communication, project uncertainty, owner’s organizational efficiency, change orders and trust were the five most frequently found factors that influence both project transaction costs and collaboration level. When the authors compared findings between different industries the authors found that the quality of communication was important for all industries. The owner’s organizational efficiency was also highly important in oil and gas and ICT projects. Trust was particularly important in oil and gas projects while frequency of claims was particularly important in construction projects.

This paper identifies the five most important factors for project practitioners to prioritize in order to reduce transaction costs through improved collaboration.

The paper contributes to the conceptual theory of transaction costs and collaboration as it empirically tests and extends the framework developed by Li et al. (2015).

This paper aims to examine how a partnering contract facilitates project values and the culture in a construction project and the consequences of said facilitation. Hence, it answers the following research questions: 1) How does the contractual framework in Bispevika facilitate relational culture? 2) What effects of this facilitation can be identified in the early phase of development?

An explorative approach is taken into a single case. A literature study into the topics of relational contracting and culture provides a backdrop for the study. The empirical work consists of a study of the construction contracts and six in-depth interviews with actors from the supply-chain.

Contractual elements affect the project organizations’ motivation. On the basis of existing literature, five contractual elements are identified explicitly in the contracts: “shared goals”, “incentives and bonus”, “open book”, “colocation”, and “design-build”.

The data collection is restricted to a single point in time in a single project. Further research is necessary both at a later stage in the same case and in similar projects.

The paper identifies the effects that proper use of contractual elements has on the relational culture in a construction project and is, therefore, important for subsequent research within the area.

In addition to identifying the existing contractual elements, the interviews also revealed two additional practices that might be useful for subsequent research: “involvement of executive management” and “subsequent contracts dependent on previous project performance”.

The purpose of the study is to map previous and current construction procurement research to further develop the research in the Nordic counties.

Mapping of previous and current research based on search in national database. The analysis is based on research perspectives, empirical contexts and research methods.

That the blind spots are partly overlapping, but that there is potential for knowledge transfer in some areas. There is also the potential for a Nordic research program on one or several of the blind spots.

The study is limited to PhD and licentiate-thesis reports in Norway and Sweden. Further research should include the other Nordic countries and a more extensive literature review including journal articles to broaden the scope. Findings have implications on collaborative Nordic research initiatives, knowledge transfer and in a longer perspective on the level of procurement knowledge in industry and society.

Findings provide a base for future research collaborations, initiatives and applications.

Findings provide a comprehensive understanding of construction procurement research in the Nordic countries, starting with Norway and Sweden. This understanding is needed for developing research collaborations and applications.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of introducing internal rent and to find the main success factors when introducing internal rent.

This paper’s analysis is based on experience from the introduction of internal rent models within four major Norwegian public organisations. The experience is documented after 19 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders representing the client organisations, property management and tenants.

The major advantage consist in that internal rent compels the different users to discipline concerning the use of space and make them adapt their use to fit the real needs and demand for space suited for their primary activities. The main disadvantage of internal rent consists in the temporary organisational noise that results from the introduction and the permanent extra bureaucratic burden it causes. The success factors for introduction of internal rent are: the users need to perceive the model as of real importance, the property management must take in enough funds to assure reliable maintenance and the client needs to avoid that the tenants think the model is constructed to seize funds.

The authors discuss a market-orientated approach to property management, namely, introducing internal rent models. It is more than a decade ago since internal rent was first introduced in the analysed public organisations. Now it is possible to identify the success factors – related to the advantages and disadvantages – from this introduction.

The study aims to address the seemingly unexplored scope of action for project managers to conduct work-related crime in the Norwegian construction industry.

Literature review: In-depth interview with 13 senior officials. Document study.

Broad scope of action to contract criminal subcontractors seems to be exploited intentionally and unintentionally.

Limited number of interviewees. The scale of intentional exploitation unknown. Research could be used as basis to further research on incentives and countermeasures.

Need for industry wide effort to improve barriers to avoid crime and contracting criminal subcontractors.

Unexplored field globally and in Norway. Little to no documentation found in previous research.