Critical barriers to social responsibility implementation within mega-construction projects: The case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Even though social responsibility (SR) has been widely discussed as a business concept, it is still not being effectively implemented within mega-construction projects due to a range of barriers. Overcoming these barriers requires detailed information, however, there is a lack of research on the barriers to SR implementation within mega-construction projects, particularly in developing countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study thus aims to investigate the critical barriers to SR implementation with reference to mega-construction projects in the KSA. Eleven barriers were identified from a comprehensive literature review and interviews with experts. These barriers were examined in more detail using a questionnaire survey on two current mega-construction projects in the KSA. There were no differences in the ranking of barriers between the two projects with the 136 respondents identifying the top seven SR barriers as being: (i) additional costs; (ii) lack of awareness and knowledge; (iii) lack of guidelines and coherent strategy; (iv) lack of stakeholder communication; (v) lack of law enforcement; (vi) lack of training; and (vii) unclear project requirements. The findings of this study not only contribute to deeper understanding of the critical SR implementation barriers, but could also encourage industry practitioners and stakeholders to improve SR activities for more effective SR implementation. Moreover, identification and ranking of the critical barriers allows decision-makers to prioritize and develop effective strategies to tackle them at both project and sector scale. Future studies should investigate the interrelationship between the critical barriers and their impact on SR implementation

Research method verses methodology: achieving quality in scholarly research for construction management

This paper analyses the various papers presented at the last three ARCOM conferences (1993, 1994, 1995) for the way researchers in construction management address the issue of methodology in scholarly research. The outcome of the analysis provides evidence of the need to give greater attention to the issue of method versus methodology, for improving the quality of academic research in construction management. The culture of research in construction management has been described as reflecting a rational approach. This implies that several procedures are undertaken in academic research without establishing a clear and methodological basis for such procedures. As a way forward for achieving a balance in the general culture of research for the discipline, it has been suggested that more interpretive approaches should be incorp9rated into construction management research. This paper argues that a clear appreciation of the distinction between what constitutes methodology, and the procedures that go with each methodology (which is-referred to in this paper as methods), would contribute towards achieving such a balance in the culture of academic research in construction management. The paper sets this out by reviewing the application of the terms method and methodology in social and management research as a way forward for improvement

Executive notions on drivers of long-term business success for construction contractors

This paper reports on an evaluation of the factors that are considered by construction company executives as essential business drivers. The aim of the research was to identify those managerial variables that feature prominently in strategy formulation, and have been previously associated with superior corporate performance. The research posed the question 'which business drivers are viewed as most essential and are addressed in strategic planning within construction contracting organisations?' It drew on previous studies to establish a set of factors which are associated with longterm business success. Several factors, both external and internal to construction companies, have already been established by a case study. These factors directly influence corpo:rate performance, and therefore should feature prominently in strategy formulation for contractors. The Likert scale was employed to analyse the executive notions. The business drivers were analysed into primary, secondary, and nonessential. The analysis provides an insight into the common factors that form the focus of strategy for construction contractors. The results of this work provides an insight on the actual factors considered pertinent in strategy formulation, and reflects the current focus of strategy within construction companies. It also provides a useful background for developing critical success factors for the construction contractor

An application of strategic planning within the construction industry

An application of strategic planning within the construction industr

Towards effective client procurement: assessing contractor risk with financial ratios

Evaluation of the contractor by client organisations forms a very crucial part of the client's procurement strategy for construction services. Current practice in undertaking such an evaluation often employs factors that are directly project-related. More important in this regard is the overriding influence of the tender price as a criterion for contractor selection. In the prevailing business climate within construction, the need for such an evaluation to take on board the susceptibility of the contractor's whole organisation to financial insolvency is apparent. This should allow for a clear awareness of the risk of engaging the services of a particular contractor by the client. The paper reviews various financial measures and tools that have been developed, or found application in the risk evaluation of enterprises. It puts forward a case for the incorporation of some of these tools in assessing the overall risk associated with the client's engagement of the services of a particular contractor

Learning techniques employed by construction contractors' organisations

This paper describes current research within the Department of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University into learning practices within UK Construction Companies. The need to understand how companies learn and accelerate the learning process is greater today than ever before. Companies that stop learning, also stop improving and may run the risk of eventually going out of business. As such, organisations are paying more attention to the concept of corporate learning in order to increase their competitive advantage, and ability to innovate so that they can sustain continuous improvement. The research forms part of a larger theme of improving strategic management practices of construction organisations. By focusing on the organic learning styles and learning mechanisms, the research addresses how construction organisations can employ these options to enhance the strategic process. The paper suggests that continuous improvement in construction companies requires a learning culture

Post-implementation analysis of a B2B e-marketplace

The advent of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Marketplaces gave the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) firms the opportunity to conduct more efficient and effective commercial interaction with their supply chain partners. Despite the large body of literature in generic Information Systems (IS) domain, there has been a very little work done to-date to investigate the B2B e-Marketplace systems implementation by AEC firms. By adopting a case study research method with a longitudinal approach to data collection, the study on which this paper is based explored the challenges in the adoption and on-going use of a large UK contractor firm’s eMarketplace systems from the perspective of end-users. Utilising a well-established theoretical model from the IS body of knowledge, the analysis revealed several important challenges related to system (functionality and usability), information (content quality) and service (training and support) dimensions of e-Marketplace systems implementation. Through incorporating the case study findings to the conceptual model, the study offers several suggestions for AEC firms to take on board during implementation of the B2B e-Marketplace systems

Roadmap layers and processes: resilient and sustainable care facilities

Health and social care facilities are usually complex buildings that require continuous effort to provide resilient and sustainable responses to changes in demographics, technologies, diseases and models of care. Despite resilience and sustainability concepts being frequently used by practitioners and researchers, ambiguities in their definitions often result in a lack of operational solutions to record, monitor and improve the resilience and sustainability of health and social care facilities. Although the importance and complexity of the issues are widely acknowledged, there is little strategic guidance as to how they should be achieved. The aim of this paper is to: assess the suitability of developing a roadmap for improving the resilience and sustainability of UK health and social care facilities; and identify the layers and processes needed to construct such a roadmap. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative approach was adopted, starting with a literature review of different types of roadmaps and their suitability to support the desired improvement objectives. Layers and processes were thus developed using the key issues identified in three recent research streams, and the roadmap was structured. Findings - The major findings have been captured within a three-layer, four-step process generic roadmap for improving the resilience and sustainability of health and social care facilities that can be used to monitor performance, plans future actions and implement response to change. Practical implications - This paper targets decision-makers, especially estate managers, but the proposed layers and processes can be modified for other stakeholders. Originality/value - This paper suggests an original approach for the development of a roadmap for resilience and sustainability of health and social care facilities, and specifically of how to structure layers and processes, envisioning a more integrated development of service provision and infrastructure asset management

Distribution properties of contractors' financial ratios

The application of financial ratios for evaluating the performance of construction contractors has received some considerable attention in academic research [..continues]. The central theme of this paper is that, although this approach may be correct mathematically, it only goes to support the view· that financial ratios are essentially not characterised by normal distributions. Identifying the underlying distributions that characterise these financial ratios should-lead to a more rational approach for developing efficient ratio models. To do this, the paper presents an approach for investigating the distributional properties of the ratios, with the view to utilising the identified distributions for estimating failure prediction models

Strategic management for construction contractors

This paper describes on-going research into strategic planning practices within British construction companies. The study focuses on the internal activities that contractors undertake to establish their corporate strategies. Previous studies of construction strategic planning have generally focused on either the analysis of industries trends, or corporate strategies as viewed from outside the construction organisation. The results of a preliminary survey and an extensive literature search have revealed that most construction contractors take an informal approach to planning in the long-term. A more systematic and formalised approach for undertaking such a planning exercise should bring about unity of purpose in the strategies, and also ensure improved monitoring of deviations and appropriate early actions. The research method combines both the primary methods of case studies, interviews and questionnaire surveys, with the secondary methods of academic and industry literary reviews; together with the analysis of specific corporate records to elicit information on the activities, participants and issues addressed in formulating strategic plans. An initial simple case study provides the background to the more robust interview surveys