Enablers for malaysian contractors to internationalise construction services

Construction industry is a complex environment, unpredictable and full of uncertainties. The economic woes that take place in the late nineties have indeed dampened Malaysian construction industry. Projects are scarce and in order to survive, many construction companies seek for other alternative in order to remain in this industry. Thus, many took a brave step and venture upon overseas market. Due to this, research is carried out in order to identify problems that triggered Malaysian contractors to move into overseas market. Apart from that problems encountered in the foreign countries in which the construction companies are operating too are identified. With these objectives in mind, case studies are conducted in India and the Middle East to better understand the situation. Two notable Malaysian contractors companies point of view are taken into account regarding the case studies in which these companies are operating their projects there respectively. The findings from these interviews reveal the success factors of overseas ventures basically lies in the strategic marketing done by each construction companies. This is vital as it determines the company’s long term objectives

Gamification Elements and Its Impact on Students

This study reviewed past research with regards to gamification and to propose a conceptual framework model by mapping the relationships between gamification elements and its impacts towards university students’ learning outcomes. This paper synthesized the extant literature on gamification elements by conducting a review of the literature on gamification in the context of students’ learning in higher education. This paper has highlighted the gamification elements i.e. composed by rewards, feedback, points, badges, leaderboards, levels, progress bar, challenges and avatar that shown to influence and positively affecting students’ learning experience in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) especially in improving their level of motivation, aid in engagement, improving result and achievement as well as inducing positive learning attitude. Investigating the impact of gamification elements means understanding under what circumstances gamification can be implemented to stimulate positive student’s learning behaviour in HEIs thus maximizing the use of gamification as an innovative approach of a new educational technology tool in teaching and learning. The findings of this paper provide reference for practitioners in mechanism design to encourage full potential of the implementation of gamification by manipulation of various element in gamification to support an interactive and conducive learning experience

A Study of Transaction Cost within the Supply Chain Network in Malaysia Construction Projects

— Construction industry of Malaysia is a complex and confronts with serious issues of cost overrun. Construction supply chain which involves multi-layered supply network carries lot of potential for conflict and additional costs involving additional transaction cost. To tackle this issue, the primary aim of this study is to identify component of waste in transaction cost within multi-layered supply chain network in Malaysian construction industry. The qualitative research approach is adopted to achieve the research objectives of this study. The data were collected through semi-structured interview from five (5) quantity surveyors working with a contractor firm situated within Klang Valley region. The implication of the finding implies that the identified data are crucial in eliminating waste in transaction cost

Students' perceptions towards the use of gamification

The Higher education system has been facing some difficulties to attract the millennial generation in engaging within the classroom setting using the traditional face-to-face learning environment, leading to other problematic issues in the long run. Millennial students often get bored, less motivated and lose their focus in the traditional learning environment due to the lack of engagement between students, as well as the instructors/ lecturers. Therefore, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are encouraging the use of gamification in education for the purpose of improving the intrinsic motivation as well as engagement. This paper reports the students’ perceptions towards the use of gamification during their class. This study used observation and questionnaire survey towards a group of second year and final year Quantity Surveying students in the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Eighty-three students responded to the questionnaire. The results showed a positive perception toward the use of gamification in their lecture. Students require effort-demanding, challenging, sophisticated learning systems that increase competency, enhance recall memory, concentration, attentiveness, commitment, and social interaction. Findings from the study shows that gamification was found to promote the student’s engagement in terms of their participation in class, enjoyment throughout the activities as well as their motivational factor to focus in class. Limitations of the study are identified, which highlights the need for further research on the subject area

A Preliminary Framework for Preventing Disputes in Different Stages of Building Construction Projects

The upward trend of dispute claims and occurrences throughout different stages has detrimentally affected the outcomes of construction projects. Building upon two major themes from a systematic literature review (SLR) study, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to further group the extensive causes and strategies into several meaningful groups using the Statistical Social Package Science (SPSS) software. Questionnaires were used and issued to three main stakeholders (clients, consultants, and contractors) in the Klang Valley area. This paper presents the PCA findings, which have led to the development of a framework to prevent disputes in different stages of building construction projects. The PCA findings have narrowed down the major contributors of disputes to “Contract-related causes” and “Time-related causes”. PCA analysis has also shown that the three key themes of “Quality-related strategies,” “Business relationship-related strategies,” and “Productivity-related strategies” were the most effective ways to reduce disagreements. It is important to highlight that the findings related to the causes of disputes during the planning stage consistently align with those of a prior study. This underscores the importance of ethical conduct, particularly during the planning phase and, more specifically, within the tendering process

Literature Review on Green Cost Premium of Sustainable Building Construction

Despite evidence that sustainable construction practice has numerous environmental, economy and societal benefits, many construction practitioners have failed to support sustainable construction practice due to perceive higher initial cost known as 'green cost premium' when compared to traditional construction practice. Hence, the factors of green cost premium that are commonly cited as a crucial barrier toward sustainable construction practice must be investigated. Based on the analysis of the existing literature (e.g.: conference paper, journal article), there are 27 factors, that classified into seven elements, that contribute to the cost differential. However, few studies have been conducted on green cost premium in developing countries. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap and is expected to contribute to the discussion on green cost premium to improve sustainable construction implementation

The development of conceptual model for improving sustainable building construction implementation

Ongoing discussion about sustainable building construction problems such as high initial cost caused by ―green cost premium‖ supported by long-term and uncertain of return on investment (ROI) as well as long-term and low profitability, lead to passive involvement of construction practitioners to construct sustainable building even many benefits are well documented. Previous research finding revealed that, most of the construction practitioners are not willing to spend more just to implement sustainability in their project and some of them has no long-term interest in operating or leasing the buildings. Hence, the question arises on ―how can this issue be resolved?‖. Therefore, this study presents a conceptual model aiming at reducing the initial cost of sustainable building construction project with the hope that this will encourage construction practitioners to invest in sustainable building construction project. Based on the analysis of existing literature (e.g.: conference paper, journal article) there are 19 cost reduction methods, that classified into six elements:technical approach, motivation, design management, project team characteristic, practical approach and management innovation. As there are limited studies conducted on methods to reduce sustainable building construction cost, the authors decided to gather an information on methods to reduce initial project cost not limited to sustainable building construction and in various industries. The components of this conceptual model were constructed based on theories and empirical evidence relating to cost reduction at which, the authors combine and conceptualized them into input-process-output (IPO) model to produce the proposed conceptual model of this study. At the end of this stage, the authors found 9 constructs with 2 associations

Gamification elements and its impact on students

This study reviewed past research with regards to gamification and to propose a conceptual framework model by mapping the relationships between gamification elements and its impacts towards university students’ learning outcomes. This paper synthesized theextant literature on gamification elements by conducting a review of the literature on gamification in the context of students’ learning in higher education. This paper has highlighted the gamification elements i.e. composed by rewards, feedback, points, badges, leaderboards, levels, progress bar, challenges and avatar that shown to influence and positively affecting students’ learning experience in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) especially in improving their level of motivation, aid in engagement, improving result and achievement as well as inducing positive learning attitude. Investigating the impact of gamification elements means understanding under what circumstances gamification can be implemented to stimulate positive student’s learning behaviour in HEIs thus maximizing the use of gamification as an innovative approach of a new educational technology tool in teaching and learning. The findings of this paper provide reference for practitioners in mechanism design to encourage full potential of theimplementation of gamification by manipulation of various element in gamification to support an interactive and conducive learning experience

Dispute avoidance procedure:formulating a workable legal system in the Malaysian construction industry

Research on dispute avoidance procedure (DAP) particularly in Malaysia is lacking as most of the current research and development deals with various issues within the dispute resolution procedure and management field. It is therefore significant to conduct a country-specific research by exploring the viability of DAP based on socio-legal research. The aim of this article is two-fold: to present the perceptions of the Malaysian construction industry players on the substantive elements of a viable DAP mechanism and; to formulate a necessary legal reform to accommodate and support the formulated DAP mechanism within the Malaysian construction industry. As part of a socio-legal research approach, interviews were conducted with the selected construction industry players to disclosethe pattern, which may help to explain the underlying issues. NVivo software has been used to manage and organize the complete interview transcripts and facilitate the data analysis process for this study. Among others, this research suggests that a viable DAP mechanism consists of the following substantive elements, namely, to introduce the mechanism through contract and to provide a contractually binding settlement. In essence, this research also advocatesa necessary legal reform to accommodate and support the formulated DAP mechanism within the Malaysian construction industry. This research generally confirms that a country-specific research is required through a socio-legal research