To be or not to be: why do transaction partners in construction industry avoid formulating agreements into contract documents?

Designing the construction contracts efficiently and effectively is vital for project success since contracts can not only motivate and regulate behaviours in projects, but also plays a crucial part in managing interfirm relationship. In practice, however, transaction partners in construction industry sometimes avoid formulating all the agreements into contract documents, which is contradictory to common logic. The aim of this research is to prove the existence of such phenomenon and to investigate the reasons for why it happens. Both questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were conducted in construction industry in China for data collection since China provides fertile context to explore the research questions. The questionnaire was used to prove the existence of such phenomenon and the interviews were used to explore the logic behind. The results show that in nearly 50% of the construction projects in China, the phenomenon of the transaction partners deliberately avoid formulating some agreements into contract documents exist. Given explanations as for why this happens include: 1) showing trust towards the other partner, 2) reducing risks in transaction, 3) increasing the possibility of further collaboration in the future, 4) bypassing the contract check in their own legal departments, and 5) preventing other competitor companies in the market from stealing technology through the contract documents. A comprehensive understanding for designing contract documents is generated in this research, which will not only help project managers for project success but also provides insights into drafting contract terms

Value Co-creation through Early Warning Signs in a Project Setting

Value co-creation as a joint process between actors to extract benefits is becoming established as one the most significant shifts in contemporary business thinking. Value co-creation provides an opportunity for a balanced and enriched realisation of value amongst stakeholders such as clients, contractors and end users in complex projects. The success of complex projects, due to the large number of stakeholders and high uncertainty level, is highly dependent on the joint processes among clients and suppliers as the key creators of value. In particular, the management of communication, associated learning and conflict management are the main determinants of value co-creation. Although research studies have been conducted extensively to investigate ways to enhance performance of projects, little emphasis has been put on the importance of the value co-creation process for realising project benefits and impact. There has been scant attention paid to weak signals in theory and practice to defend value creation and encourage the conditions for co-creation early in the project lifecycle. Based on the theory of "weak signals", challenging situations and discontinuities do not emerge without warning. With hindsight, the most likely factors leading to undesired events are often signalled. The identification, evaluation and utilisation of these signals potentially improve learning and communication in the value co-creation process. This research aims to conceptually define weak signals of potential challenges in value co-creation processes, address the way they are identified and evaluated, and examine their use in improving value co-creation. In particular, we look at the processes jointly owned by contractors and clients in complex projects

The effect of anisotropy on post-buckling behavior of laminated plates using semi-energy finite strip method

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A novel semi energy finite strip method for post-buckling analysis of relatively thick anti-symmetric laminated plates

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