Building a conceptual framework for measuring business performance in construction: an empirical evaluation

The importance of business performance measurement across industries has elevated in the last decade in what has been described as a revolution. Meanwhile, the construction industry has been criticised for its underperformance and the Latham and Egan reports emphasized the need for performance improvement and measurement. Companies have had to face the dilemma of choosing among different performance measurement frameworks. Hence, a need has been identified for a comprehensive framework. The aim of this research is to fulfil this need by building a conceptual framework for measuring the business performance of construction organizations. The framework had been formulated in previous research upon the principles of the Balanced Scorecard and Business Excellence Models. The research attempts to empirically evaluate and revise the framework through a series of expert interviews and case studies. In addition, empirical feedback has been used to: express the revised framework in a more communicative form, illustrate how business performance can be measured; and highlight the differences between the proposed framework and contemporary performance frameworks.Balanced scorecard, construction, empirical evaluation, excellence model, performance measurement,

Análise de sistemas de medição de desempenho na indústria da construção

O crescente debate sobre medição de desempenho entre profissionais e entre pesquisadores da área de gestão organizacional ainda não foi suficiente para consolidar as práticas de medição na indústria da construção. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo identificar as oportunidades para o aprimoramento dos sistemas de medição de desempenho na Construção. Para tanto, foram avaliados 22 modelos identificados na literatura nacional e internacional dos últimos 25 anos, aplicando protocolo de análise proposto neste estudo, e validado por especialistas. A partir do mapeamento das principais características, papéis e processos das práticas de medição no setor, da avaliação realizada concluiu-se que há necessidade de melhorias (i) no processamento dos dados, integrando-o à rotina organizacional, (ii) na gestão da informação, melhorando os mecanismos de geração de conhecimentos, (iii) na conexão da avaliação com um sistema de recompensas, e (iv) na revisão sistemática, quanto à sua utilidade, eficiência e consistência geral, não apenas de seus indicadores individuais. Propôs-se, ainda, um framework que apresenta uma visão holística do processo de medição, enfatizando a diferença entre sistema de indicadores e de medição de desempenho. Uma agenda de pesquisa foi sugerida, a partir das lacunas e oportunidades de melhoria encontrados

Cocirculation of Two Transmission Lineages of Echovirus 6 in Jinan, China, as Revealed by Environmental Surveillance and Sequence Analysis▿

Enterovirus environmental surveillance on sewage from the city of Jinan, Shandong Province, China, was initiated in 2008. Thirty echovirus 6 (E6) strains—1 in 2008 and 29 in 2010—were isolated and identified. Most E6 isolates (n = 21) came from the sewage collected on August 2010, revealing high local E6 activity at that time. Interestingly, the VP1 sequences of most isolates, even from the same sewage, were not identical. Phylogenetic analysis of VP1 sequences revealed two lineages for these isolates, with 78.0 to 80.0% nucleotide identities with one another, 94.8 to 100.0% identity within the major lineage, and 92.7 to 98.5% identity within the minor one. The VP1 sequences of environmental isolates, clinical isolates from 1998 to 2010, and global E6 were subjected to evolutionary analysis using Bayesian phylodynamic methods. The inferred E6 VP1 ancestral sequence dated back to 1901 (range, 1873 to 1928) and evolved with 7.047 × 10−3 substitutions per site per year. Shandong E6 segregated into three clusters, and the two environmental lineages belonged to clusters A and C, which originated in 2003 and 1992, respectively. The antigenicity analysis via neutralization assay confirmed great antigenic differences between Shandong isolates and a prototype strain. These findings underscore the value of continuous environmental surveillance and genetic analysis to monitor circulating enteroviruses in the population and give further insight into E6 evolution