Applying the dynamic capabilities framework in the case of a large public construction client

Public clients in the construction sector face a number of challenges in designing, procuring and managing major construction projects. The client’s role in bringing about project delivery has more recently been emphasized, particularly with respect to developing capabilities that facilitate the coordinating of projects through its different phases. In line with these developments, this paper sets out to examine the management of capabilities in a client organization through the lens of the dynamic capabilities framework. In particular, what is investigated is how the client organization senses, seizes and transforms opportunities. In pursuit of this objective, an exploratory case study approach is adopted which examines one of Sweden’s largest public client organizations. The study explores the concept of dynamic capabilities and its applicability to the public construction context. Although the usefulness of dynamic capabilities as an interpretive framework is recognized, it is suggested that the concept of dynamic capabilities is inadequate for addressing the specific context in which public client organizations operate. Particularly with respect to the project-based characteristic of these organizations and the difficulty in framing what constitutes “competitive advantage” for public organizations.     

基于公私共生的公共工程采购模式

随着基础设施建设的发展,公共工程的采购模式也不断创新。将共生理论引入公私合作模式中,把政府与私营方视为系统两个独立的方面,对照共生模式中的基本类型,将政府与私营方之间的合作关系视为非对称互惠模式。文章通过博弈论分析了政府和私营方在共生模式下如何达到帕累托最优状态;运用价值网对政府与私营方的价值流进行分析,研究了政府与私营方共生的内在机理。文章通过能量损耗与共生能量的分配原则,提出了政府与私营方之间风险分担和利益分配的概念模型。     

Searching for value: construction strategy exploration and linear planning

Examined is how contractor or construction manager decision making and judgment in response to client objectives and project constraints can be aided by a structured approach to construction strategy selection and assessment using time-space project process and product modelling. The context studied is one of high-rise construction. Construction strategy is expressed in terms of strategy modes and tactical variables and accompanying values, which in turn are expressed in terms of a formal plan using a linear planning modelling paradigm. Highlighted is the important role that data visualization can play in both formulating strategy and assessing its workability via the medium of linear planning graphics complemented with other data representations that make use of quantitative product model data. Of particular interest is the ability to formulate and assess alternative construction strategies in a relatively fast and cost effective manner in order to achieve best value as a function of project constraints, context, and project participant objectives. Included in the assessment task is consideration of the impact of strategy on construction process productivity and production rates by way of performance metrics that relate directly to strategy workability. The concepts presented are illustrated through their application to a large-scale, mixed-use project.     

公众规划价值观的差序格局——基于城市规划领域中公众留言的内容分析

为人民服务是规划师秉持的重要理念,但对公众关注的规划议题、现实诉求和价值观念始终缺乏系统研究。为此,本文通过网上公众留言的质性内容分析,归纳出民众关心的118个子类目和24个主类目。研究发现,每位居民心中都存在一个以自我为中心、向外围扩张的“规划事务差序圈层”。位于核心的规划事务深具私人性、地方性特征,相关留言比例最高,语义中的负面情绪较为强烈,居民更为强调程序性与实质性的公平。而随圈层向外围拓展,规划事务的公共性、广域性特征不断增强,公众更多抱持效率优先的价值观,相关留言比重及其负面情绪均有下降。这一“公众规划观的差序格局”表明,居民群体并非是抽象均质的,简单以公平取向来标签化大众也是不准确的。     

Changing collaborative practices through cultural interventions

After a parliamentary enquiry into construction industry malpractice, changes occurred in collaborative practices between clients and contractors in megaprojects within the Dutch construction sector. The enquiry meant that both clients and contractors were forced to acknowledge illegal practices of collusion and fraud. For those engaged in public–private relationships, a process followed of attempting to change collaborative practices. Three interventions in collaborative practices are recounted: (1) organizing personal networks between clients and contractors; (2) a competitive dialogue procedure; and (3) the right of withdrawal. These three interventions helped to change ‘first order’ practice, such as increasing mutual trust between client and contractor, supporting a mutual understanding of role positioning and dilemmas, and creating an understanding of the nature of the conflict but failed to change ‘second order’ practices. Two contributions to the understanding of project management are provided. New empirical data are presented on the challenges that public and private partners face in their attempt to implement new collaborative practices. It is shown how power is entangled in the emerging of new collaborative practices. The findings are based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of public–private collaboration in the Dutch construction industry in the period 2006–11.     

Embedding occupational health and safety in the procurement and management of infrastructure projects: institutional logics at play in the context of new public management

The research explored the approaches used by government agencies (as client organizations) to drive occupational health and safety (OHS) performance improvements in publicly funded infrastructure construction projects in Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 representatives of clients and contractors with direct and recent experience of delivering large public infrastructure projects. Interviews explored the procurement approaches taken, and the use of incentives and performance measurement. Data was subjected to inductive analysis to identify emergent concepts and themes relating to the way that New Public Management (NPM) influences the commercial management of infrastructure construction projects, with particular reference to OHS impacts. The concept of institutional logics was utilised as a theoretical frame to understand clients’ behaviour in the commercial management of infrastructure projects. Client behaviour was consistent with elements of NPM and reflected a managerialist logic in the pursuit of efficiency, the use of targets, incentives and performance measurement. However, a strong professional service logic was also found to drive active client behaviour in relation to the management of OHS. Understanding the institutional logics driving client OHS practices is an important theoretical development that can stimulate reflexive practice which may create an impetus for change.     

Challenges when implementing BIM for industry change

Public clients have been identified as drivers of architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry change through their implementation of building information modelling (BIM). Yet, little is known of this implementation process and the associated challenges. This study aims to increase the understanding of what intra- and inter-organizational challenges that arise when a large Swedish public infrastructure client implements BIM to change the work practices of the actors in the Swedish AEC industry. The IT business value model allows for understanding the public client’s implementation of BIM as an IT-supported change process and for understanding the associated intra- and inter-organizational challenges. The findings show nine categories of intra- and inter-organizational challenges related to, for example, demanding BIM in procurement and creating incentives for BIM implementation. The findings show that intra-organizational challenges related to a top-down implementation of BIM, while inter-organizational challenges related to a bottom-up implementation. The impact of these challenges on the public client’s ability to drive AEC industry change by implementing BIM is discussed. The findings contribute with the client perspective to studies on BIM implementation and with an increased understanding of the challenges associated with implementing IT-supported change processes.     

Clients’ needs,wants and expectations from contractors and approach to the concept of repetitive works in the Northern Cyprus construction market

Intense competition existing in the construction market creates an industry that is dominated by the client groups. This paper provides insights into private clients’ needs, wants and expectations from contractor firms in the Northern Cyprus building construction market, by presenting survey findings of 91 clients regarding this issue. Moreover, it presents their perspective related to doing repetitive works with the same contractors in possible future works. The study has clearly confirmed the fact that the clients in the specified market place high emphasis on a wide variety of factors. The importance assigned to these factors varies according to the categories or characteristics of the clients within the private building construction sector. Another striking finding was the responding clients’ willingness to do possible repetitive works with the same contractors assuming that they are fully satisfied with the existing or past projects. This opportunity, if used properly by the contractor firms in this market, may be the key to beating the competition and lead to the easy path to increase a contractor firm's market share. Furthermore, it was found that the responding clients expect much more than quality, finishing on time and within budget for full satisfaction and continuing to do repetitive works. The importance and hence the contribution of a set of criteria related to achieving full client satisfaction, and leading to possible repetitive works is presented. Although it would not be reasonable to determine general strategies on just a single study, the contractor firms in the Northern Cyprus construction market will benefit from the framework given within this paper by recognizing what is important and essential to private building construction clients in particular situations and hence present the capabilities of the contracting or potential contracting organizations in ways that meet this to best advantage. Although the results given are based on input from the Northern Cyprus construction market, we believe that the contractor firms in other countries, who specialize in building works for private sector may also benefit from the findings or at least the approach of this research as well.     

Co-creating social value through cross-sector collaboration between social enterprises and the construction industry

Emerging social procurement imperatives are driving new forms of cross-sector collaboration between private, public and social enterprise sectors in the construction industry. Yet there is little understanding of how and why social enterprises and private construction firms collaborate in meeting new social procurement imperatives and of the institutional and organizational factors shape these practices. Drawing on theoretical insights from governance, management and policy studies and three case studies of major organizations from across the construction social value chain, the organizational and institutional factors that drive cross-sector collaborations are explored. Documentary analysis of social procurement strategy and policy, non-participant observation of social procurement initiatives in action and in-depth interviews with senior social procurement champions suggest that existing processes of social value co-creation through supply chain relationships more closely reflect a cooperative than a collaborative model, are largely driven by commercial concerns and influenced by industry norms and institutional imperatives. It is concluded that there are significant differences in experience and opportunity for collaboration based on supply chain position and organizational scale and that these have notable effects on the co-creation of social value and the legitimacy of different social benefit providers in the construction industry.     

Construction industry clients: A survey of their attributes and project management practices

The recent growth of interest in the strategic decisions made by clients as to how to organize and manage their projects has not as yet been matched by any extensive and systematic analysis of clients' attitudes and approaches towards project management. This paper seeks to help redress this imbalance by presenting findings from a survey of 138 client organizations drawn from both the private and public sectors. Focusing upon their experiences on a recently completed, comparatively large (£1 million plus) project, the paper examines similarities and differences in the ways in which clients organize and manage their projects and assesses the impact of these practices on project performance. Differences in the type, size and typicality of the projects are also taken into account in the analysis. The main conclusions drawn from the data are that client experience has an important impact upon many of the decisions made, that strategic decisions are often internally driven as opposed to project-based, that additional work and inadequate briefing still continue to cause problems during construction, and that there is little direct evidence in favour of alternatives to traditional managerial and contractual arrangements.     

Factors constituting the innovation adoption environment of public clients

Construction clients exert direct and indirect influences on the potential of construction projects to generate innovative solutions. Understanding their innovation adoption behaviour is thus crucial for the successful diffusion of new ideas. Although it is acknowledged that clients can support as well as suppress construction innovation, little is known about the circumstances that form their innovation adoption behaviour. On the basis of a client classification scheme and three cases of innovative construction projects in the Netherlands, the factors that constitute the adoption decision environment of professional public clients were investigated. A key finding is that professional public clients will adopt a new idea if they perceive that it performs better in meeting social requirements than traditional solutions, without compromising the client's social responsibilities. This perception is formed only if public professional clients rely on project-independent knowledge in order to cope with the project-dependent uncertainty. The diversity of construction clients in terms of needs, experiences and motivations largely influences the potential of construction innovations to be implemented. Moreover, innovating firms need to address the complex decision environment of construction clients more consciously.

Dans le secteur de la construction, les clients exercent des influences directes et indirectes sur la capacité des projets de construction à générer des solutions innovantes. Il est essentiel de bien comprendre leur comportement en ce qui concerne l'adoption d'innovations pour la bonne diffusion d'idées nouvelles. Bien que l'on admette que les clients puissent également contribuer à la suppression de l'innovation dans la construction, on connaît peu les circonstances qui façonnent leur comportement lorsqu'il s'agit d'adopter des innovations. Sur la base d'un système de classement des clients et de trois cas de projets de construction novateurs aux Pays-Bas, on a étudié les facteurs qui constituent l'environnement dans lequel les clients professionnels du secteur public prennent leur décision d'adopter des innovations. Selon un résultat intéressant, les clients professionnels du secteur public adoptent une idée nouvelle s'ils ressentent qu'elle répondra mieux à des exigences sociales que les solutions traditionnelles, sans compromettre leurs responsabilités sociales. Cette perception n'existe que si les professionnels du secteur public s'appuient sur une connaissance indépendante du projet pour répondre à l'incertitude qui dépend du projet. La diversité des clients du secteur de la construction en termes de besoin, d'expériences et de motivations a une influence importante sur la capacité du secteur de la construction à mettre en ?uvre des innovations. De plus, les entreprises innovantes ont besoin d'aborder de façon plus consciente l'environnement décisionnel complexe des clients du secteur de la construction.

Mots clés: comportement du client, clients du secteur de la construction, environnement décisionnel, innovation, secteur public, innovation technologique     

Enhancing value co-creation in professional service projects: The roles of professionals,clients and their effective interactions

Projects are value creation mechanisms for organizations. In this paper, we build on service-dominant logic theory to theorize how value is perceived and co-created by service providers and clients in professional service projects. From two studies, we found that for service providers to create their value, particularly non-monetary value (e.g., enhanced reputation), client values (e.g., solving a business problem) must first be generated. The results further highlight the importance of reciprocal interactions between service providers and their clients in co-creating value for both parties. Service providers' professional knowledge and competence and their clients' levels of professional knowledge and motivation to interact are critical to enable effective interactions. However, the influence of service providers' professional ethics and clients' trust in professionals on project value co-creation is more complex than theoretically predicted. This paper advances the project value creation literature by providing a more holistic view of what value means for different stakeholders, how it is created, and by whom.     

Market structure of the construction industry in Hong Kong

This study examines the market structure of four different sectors within the construction industry in Hong Kong. Market concentrations, expressed in terms of Herfindahl-Hershamann indices (HHIs) and number equivalents (HNEs), are calibrated for the top five contractors and compared with those of the local property industry. The study reveals the following ascending order of market concentrations: private building, public building, property development, and civil engineering. Our explanation is that technological and capital requirements have imposed a strong barrier to entry into the civil engineering sector, resulting in a concentrated market. Conversely, the lack of technological demand and supply in the private building sector has led to easy market entry and exit. Building contractors thus compete intensely on cost reduction rather than technology improvement, leading to poor construction safety and product quality. The paper concludes that the Government, being a major client of construction works and regulator of the industry, can assume a more active role in promoting the overall competitiveness of indigenous local contractors in Hong Kong.     

Forecasting construction durations for public housing projects: a Hong Kong perspective

The past thirty years have seen a great surge of international attention and discussion in the domain of construction time performance of building projects. Demand for residential construction has been continually increasing in Hong Kong since the 1950s, while an accelerated demand has been envisaged in the next few years up to 2001. This paper is based on the findings of the third survey in an investigation which aimed at determining a group of critical factors that affect construction durations of building projects in Hong Kong. This stage of the study attempted to generate standards (norms) for overall completion periods of public housing blocks, by modelling the durations of the primary work packages in the building construction process, i.e. piling, pile caps/raft, superstructure, EandM services, finishes and their respective sequential start-start lag times, in terms of the identified sets of critical factors (significant variables). Data from 15 case studies of standard New Cruciform type housing blocks was collected from the client and contractors. Multiple Linear Regression was applied in analyzing the project data and formulating a construction duration model. The forecasting performance of the model was next evaluated using an independent (new) set of project information from the client, in terms of a relative measure known as the Percentage Error. Both the general applications and drawbacks of the model are briefly presented and examined herein. The low values of percentage error (less than about ±10%) for overall construction durations confirmed that the model can be a reliable tool for predicting the construction durations of public housing projects in Hong Kong; and the research methodology used could well be extended to similar studies and duration forecasts in other sub-sectors in Hong Kong, as well as in other countries.     

Can integrated solutions business models work in construction?

It has recently been suggested that the future of the construction industry lies in adopting a new business model based on the concept of integrated solutions. Integrated solutions are combinations of products and services that address a customer's unique requirements throughout the life cycle, from development and design to systems integration, operations and decommissioning. Research on integrated solutions in other capital goods sectors has shown suppliers have had to create new business models, including developing new approaches to adding value, and building up new capabilities - especially in systems integration. The paper presents some preliminary empirical findings about construction industry perceptions of value, systems integration and integrated solutions that suggest the concept of built environment solutions provision is still at an early stage in its development and that the best opportunity for its introduction is in the context of private finance initiatives in the public sector or large clients who require repeatable solutions in the private sector.     

A study of professional perspectives on structural frame selection

The choice of an appropriate structural frame can contribute to effective short‐ and long‐term performance, and enhance client satisfaction but limited research indicates that the issues taken into account during structural frame selection are not very well understood. With this in mind, a major research programme, including interviews and an industry survey, examined the attitudes of project managers, cost consultants and construction clients in analysing the issues they typically consider when choosing the structural frame for a building, and to provide insights about how such decisions are made in practice. Ten key issues were identified as being the most important affecting structural frame selection, but the extent to which different parties considered these and at what stage was found to vary. Also, the variations, between what these parties themselves think of the issues and what others perceive their attitudes to be, were examined. In particular, the results showed that what clients perceive differs considerably from how clients’ views are perceived by others. For instance, according to cost consultants and project managers, their clients’ preference to regularly select a ‘preferred’ frame type or material is a far more widespread tendency than clients themselves actually acknowledged.     

An analysis of success factors and benefits of partnering in construction

Partnering is increasingly being used on construction projects. Partnering involves the parties to a construction project working together in an environment of trust and openness to realise the project efficiently and without conflict. Using a UK-wide postal questionnaire survey, the opinions of different types of organisation — consultants, contractors, and clients were assessed in relation to the success factors and benefits of partnering. The study shows that UK contractors and clients are more positive about partnering than consultants. The research also indicates that certain requirements must be met if partnering is to succeed. In particular, trust, communication, commitment, a clear understanding of roles, consistency and a flexible attitude are necessary. It is recognised that nothing will change without considerable effort from all parties. Respondents believe that partnering can bring significant benefits, including fewer adversarial relationships and increased end-customer satisfaction, to the construction industry if all parties involved in a project strive for its success.     

政府投资代建项目寻租风险规避研究

代建制模式下政府投资的建设工程项目关系复杂,容易因代建单位的投机行为产生寻租风险,而规避寻租风险是政府投资工程项目取得成功的关键因素之一。从分析代建制项目的委托代理关系的角度出发,对政府投资代建项目寻租风险的产生原因进行阐述,结合约束与监督机制建立博弈模型,通过对博弈模型的算例分析证明其适用性和有效性。并运用该博弈模型求解出最优监督成本与最优激励系数,为代建双方签订契约提供参考。该研究方法的提出与应用旨在为政府投资代建项目寻租风险的规避提供理论依据与科学指导。