Search results

The purpose of this study is to commence the discourse on the non-inclusiveness of the dynamics of reputation within the construction industry by identifying and examining the key product and process drivers of reputation in mega-construction projects.

Data was collected through an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach which commences with a qualitative study and culminates with a quantitative study to identify product and process drivers of reputation in mega-construction projects.

The findings suggest that “project quality”, “robust social and environmental sustainability plan”, “project team competence and interpersonal relationship” and “project process efficacy” are the four key drivers influencing the reputation of mega-construction projects.

The findings of this study are solely based on the perception of UK construction practitioners; therefore, the results may only be considered valid in this context. The identification of these key drivers provides a pathway where stakeholders, professionals and organisations can identify and prioritise critical issues associated with enhancing and sustaining the reputation of mega-construction projects.

Findings of this research make a significant contribution to the discourse on the concept of reputation within the construction industry by identifying its specific drivers of reputation.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of the big data technologies for health and safety risks analytics in the power infrastructure domain with large data sets of health and safety risks, which are usually sparse and noisy.

The study focuses on using the big data frameworks for designing a robust architecture for handling and analysing (exploratory and predictive analytics) accidents in power infrastructure. The designed architecture is based on a well coherent health risk analytics lifecycle. A prototype of the architecture interfaced various technology artefacts was implemented in the Java language to predict the likelihoods of health hazards occurrence. A preliminary evaluation of the proposed architecture was carried out with a subset of an objective data, obtained from a leading UK power infrastructure company offering a broad range of power infrastructure services.

The proposed architecture was able to identify relevant variables and improve preliminary prediction accuracies and explanatory capacities. It has also enabled conclusions to be drawn regarding the causes of health risks. The results represent a significant improvement in terms of managing information on construction accidents, particularly in power infrastructure domain.

This study carries out a comprehensive literature review to advance the health and safety risk management in construction. It also highlights the inability of the conventional technologies in handling unstructured and incomplete data set for real-time analytics processing. The study proposes a technique in big data technology for finding complex patterns and establishing the statistical cohesion of hidden patterns for optimal future decision making.

A major challenge for foreign lenders in financing public private partnerships (PPP) infrastructure projects in an emerging market (EM) is the bankability of country-related risks. Despite existing studies on country risks in international project financing, perspectives of foreign lenders on bankability of country-specific risks in an EM is yet to be explored. Hence, using a mixed methodology approach, three private finance initiatives/PPP projects in Sub Saharan Africa (Nigeria) were used to investigate political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks in PPP loan applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The study adopted mixed methodological approach comprising focus group discussions and analysis of loan documents obtained from foreign project lenders, in addition to the questionnaire survey distributed to local and international project financiers with experiences in PPPs within Nigeria.

Results identified seven topmost bankability criteria for evaluating country-related risks (political risk, sponsor, concession and legal risks) in EM PPPs. In addition, a “Risk and Bankability Framework Model” was developed from the study presenting critical parameters for gaining foreign funding approval for EM’s PPP loan applications.

Since the study only explored bankability of PPPs in Sub Saharan Africa with the exclusion of other geographical regions, the proposed framework model should be taken in context of EMs as a mind-map for foreign lenders and local private investors seeking to finance PPPs in an EM.

Results from the study represent critical parameters for winning foreign loan approval for PPP infrastructure projects within an EM context.

Study proposed “Risk and Bankability Framework Model” relevant for evaluating PPP loan applications at the pre-approval stage for EM PPPs.

The level of corruption in Nigeria is very high, and this has grossly reduced the desired confidence and trust in the nation’s political leaders and political institutions. It is even worse to the extent that many of its citizens, especially in the medical profession, lecturers and other specialties, are leaving the country altogether because they have already lost hope in the country called Nigeria. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how political trust in Nigeria is affected by perceived corruption and to ascertain how social media use functions in this relationship.

Because this study is quantitative in nature, a positivist research philosophy is being used. A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. 14.1 million voters in north-central Nigeria are the study’s population, and a sample size of 385 was determined through an online sample size calculator with a 2% margin of error and a 95% confidence interval. The population was divided into smaller units for the study, and samples were selected from each unit using multistage sampling and simple random sampling techniques. An online self-administered questionnaire was used through the various social media’s platforms because of the nature of the study’s population to collect data. To examine the gathered data, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. While inferential statistics were used to test the hypotheses through partial least squares structural equation modeling, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the respondents’ demographic data via a frequency table.

This study’s findings showed that social media use mediates the relationship between perceived corruption and political trust in Nigeria and that perceived corruption positively and significantly affects political trust in Nigeria.

This study is not without its limitations. Therefore, the few limitations of the study range from the limited sample sample to the population of Nigeria. Also, using only the quantitative research method for the nature of this research is another major limitation of the study. And lastly, using one out of the six zones in Nigeria will make it difficult to generalize the findings of the study. However, it is then recommended that future researchers consider a larger population than the current study for proper coverage; the future study can also use both the quantitative and qualitative research methods.

The practical implications of understanding how social media shapes political trust among political leaders through the lens of perceived corruption in the Nigerian political system are dimensional and have implications for various stakeholders, including policymakers, political leaders, media professionals and the general public. First, for policymakers and political leaders, the findings offer insights into the importance of proactive and transparent communication on social media. Recognizing the impact of social media on shaping perceptions of corruption, political figures such as the office of the presidency, senators, governors and all other political office holders can leverage these platforms to engage people.

This study is innovative because it examines, through the lens of perceived corruption, how social media use influences political trust among political leaders. This approach provides a new look at the relationship between digital engagement and political attitudes.