The competitive advantages in the construction industry - a theoretical approach

Because the construction industry is widely viewed as the engine that drives economies around the world, understanding how companies achieve their competitive advantages through innovation, the use of information technologies, strategies, business models, or human resources is vital. The current paper aims to identify and categorize the types of competitive advantages that exist, ranging from pure technological advantages such as information storage, coordination, and electronic communication to organizational and management advantages. In terms of methodological approach, performing a quality analysis of the existent literature regarding competitive advantages consists the best tool due to its wide spectrum of gathering the data. The research will be structured in 3 steps, respectively problem formulation, gathering of the data and title, abstract and full-text review. A complex perspective of the competitive advantages can be therefore obtained which can be a valuable asset in helping a construction enterprise in selecting its long-time strategy for becoming more competitive, efficient and sustainable. Through the main findings, innovation, usage of the informational technologies, initial conditions, environment understanding, safety culture or management practices of the human resources can be counted

On the properties of aluminium doped zinc oxide thin films deposited on plastic substrates from ceramic targets

We report on the deposition of Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin films on unheated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique using a UV excimer laser and Al2O3:ZnO ceramic targets (1.5 and 2 wt% Al2O3). The deposited AZO films have been investigated by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and optical spectrophotometry. Films present excellent optical and electrical properties (transmission in the visible range T > 85%; resistivity at room temperature rho = 1.3 x 10(-3) Omega cm) as electrodes for plastic solar cells. A good correlation was found between deposition conditions (laser fluence) and structural, morphological, optical and electrical propertie

COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Effects on the Usage of Information Technologies in the Construction Industry: The Case of Romania

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world face a whole new reality, and the measures taken for slowing the spread of the disease included social distancing, as well as national, regional, or local lockdowns and restrictions regarding the movement of people. For such an important sector of the Romanian economy as the construction industry, the restrictive measures imposed by the authorities led to postponing, delaying, or stopping the current projects. This paper aims at investigating the main effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Romanian construction sector, as well as the role of the digitalization process in mitigating the negative impact on the companies activating in this domain, in the context of the current levels of use of information technologies. The research involved the use of qualitative (exploratory in-depth interviews) and quantitative (online surveys applied to members of the local building sector, such as engineers, architects, contractors, and managers) data collection methods, respectively descriptive statistics for data categorization and interpretation. In general, the Romanian construction sector was only slightly affected, with the most significant negative effects being the delays and cost overrun due to safety and health issues. This paper is one of the first studies to explore and assess the effects of COVID-19 on the Romanian construction industry and the role of digitalization in reducing the pandemic impact. The main findings reveal that the companies in this industry that have a high digitalization degree overpassed in a smoother manner the current pandemic situation