The Roles, Challenges & Improvement of Project Manager in Project Financial Management in Building Development in Penang, Malaysia

Project Manager holds roles and responsibilities to ensure the success of construction projects for his organisation. And one of the roles is to ensure the well-management of Project Financial Management in his organisation. Recent research has identified project cost overrun has been a major issue in construction industry. These project cost overrun cases have been repeating and have reduced the profit and revenues of the project owners. Therefore, it comes across the researchers mind of what the project managers who work for developer companies have been doing in order to overcome repeated cost overrun cases in the near future project developments. Hence, the set objectives of the research are: 1) To identify the important roles of Project Manager in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia, 2) To identify challenges faced by Project Manager in Financial Management of building project development in Malaysia. 3) To identity solutions to overcome such challenges faced in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia. However, due to time constraint, this research is limited and carried out in Penang, which is the second-smallest state in Malaysia, with strong population growth and has undertaken numerous construction projects in Malaysia. The research methodology used for this study is qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews are used as research instrument for the data collection for this research. An overall of six interviews had been conducted with highly experienced Project Managers in Penang construction industry who has the knowledge and experiences in the Financial Management of building development. The data from the successful interviews are then been analysed using content analysis method in which the data collected are categorized into groups in table forms. From the findings, the respondents had defined the Project Financial Management relating to three main aspects. Four (4) out of six (6) respondents are having moderate involvement and two (2) respondents are having high involvement in the Financial Management in building development in Penang. The research findings had also identified five (5) major roles of project manager in Project Financial Management. Furthermore, five (5) major challenges of project manager in Project Financial Management were also identified. Finally, research findings also identified four (4) major solutions to overcome the challenges faced by project manager in Project Financial Management. Ultimately, this research is anticipated to create awareness of the important roles of Project Manager in Project Financial Management to mitigate the cost overrun issues in construction projects

Potential integration of blockchain technology into smart sustainable city (SSC) developments: a systematic review

Purpose: Prior literature lacks concrete and systematic review of the current blockchain application in smart sustainable city that covered to the full extent of various components. Thus, this study explores the integration of blockchain technology in making the city smarter, safer and sustainable. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a systematic literature review of 49 publications published globally. Data were analysed by coding of the publications whereby the codes were generated based on frequency of appearance Findings: The results showed that smart sustainable city could leverage blockchain technology in several areas such as governance, mobility, asset, utility, healthcare and logistics. Blockchain technology could also aid smart sustainable city in achieving social, environmental and economic sustainability. Originality/value: This study proposes a smart sustainable city with blockchain technology framework: guiding city planners and policymakers by deploying blockchain that supports technology within smart sustainable city framework. This facilitates the digital transformation of a city towards smart and sustainable through the use of blockchain