Search results

1 – 3 of 3
Per page
102050
Citations:
Loading...
Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 1 March 2019

Amira Shalaby and Amr Hassanein

Public private partnership contracts tend to have longer contract durations compared to other conventional procurement methods. A contract renegotiation becomes inevitable in most…

383

Abstract

Purpose

Public private partnership contracts tend to have longer contract durations compared to other conventional procurement methods. A contract renegotiation becomes inevitable in most of the cases. The renegotiation process usually develops a number of scenarios in order to regain the contract equilibrium. The purpose of this paper is to facilitate the renegotiation process by offering an automated system to select the optimum renegotiation scenario that preserves the rights and the interests of the project stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

The common renegotiation scenarios used are: increasing the service charges, increasing the concession period or paying a lump sum amount to the party of concern in order to maintain a fixed rate of return and keep the return on equity constant. In this paper, a method of selecting the optimum scenario among the different scenarios is proposed. This is done using a weighted sum model to calculate the weights and ranks of a number of factors influencing the stakeholders’ decisions. A DSS is developed with the aid of Microsoft Excel, VBA programming language, and the Precision Tree 5.5 for Excel add-in.

Findings

The renegotiation process has been facilitated by using an automated system that maximizes the benefits of both the public sector and the private sector. The optimum renegotiation scenario has been selected for the case of the model.

Originality/value

The developed framework is of great benefit to project stakeholders, including the private sector, the public sector and the users of the service. It saves time and money invested in lengthy negotiations, and it enforces transparency and mutual trust between the different parties by providing a tool that significantly minimizes conflicts during the renegotiation process and defines clear steps to be followed in order to reach an agreement that will maximize the benefits for both the private and the public sectors.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 26 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 25 June 2021

Amira Shalaby and A. Samer Ezeldin

In many developing countries, the sanitation sector constitutes a major part of their strategic plans of reform. Yet with the very limited budget of the public treasury, countries…

378

Abstract

Purpose

In many developing countries, the sanitation sector constitutes a major part of their strategic plans of reform. Yet with the very limited budget of the public treasury, countries opt to major lending institutions for funds. “Results-Based-Finance” is a new funding mechanism that has proven its efficiency in achieving the necessary reform in sanitation sectors. Due to the complexity of the funding tool, it is crucial to be able to decompose the project into smaller packages to be able to effectively control the project. The objective of this paper is to reach an optimum packaging scheme that enables the project to be successfully managed through better planning and cost control practices.

Design/methodology/approach

With the aid of Unified Modelling Language (UML), an algorithm is developed to map the logic behind the model suggested with detailed illustrations of its different modules. Object-oriented processes and operations are modeled using different diagrams of the language, which automatically generate the optimum packaging combination. The packaging model is then implemented via a number of computer-aided programs. The Microsoft Excel 2019 is used for calculation purposes. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language is used to make the model user-friendly for non-engineering stakeholders. The Palisade's Decision Tools Suite is used for the optimization process

Findings

The model is validated through a case study of a mega sanitation project located in Egypt. The model output is not only the content of the packages but also a complete managing plan which demonstrates many useful information to the decision-makers and government officials.

Originality/value

The research aim is to provide the construction industry with a tool that makes the packaging process of mega projects funded through the “Results-Based-Finance” mechanism, done in an automated manner. Moreover, the packages are selected in a way to optimize the project cashflow. Having the optimum package size shall ensure better planning and a more accurate cost control. Yet it is a challenging task; especially, when the project cash flow is very sensitive and intolerant to delays like in the “Results-Based-Finance” mechanism.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Access Restricted. View access options
Article
Publication date: 25 February 2022

Souheila Ben Guirat, Ibrahim Bounhas and Yahya Slimani

The semantic relations between Arabic word representations were recognized and widely studied in theoretical studies in linguistics many centuries ago. Nonetheless, most of the…

147

Abstract

Purpose

The semantic relations between Arabic word representations were recognized and widely studied in theoretical studies in linguistics many centuries ago. Nonetheless, most of the previous research in automatic information retrieval (IR) focused on stem or root-based indexing, while lemmas and patterns are under-exploited. However, the authors believe that each of the four morphological levels encapsulates a part of the meaning of words. That is, the purpose is to aggregate these levels using more sophisticated approaches to reach the optimal combination which enhances IR.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors first compare the state-of-the art Arabic natural language processing (NLP) tools in IR. This allows to select the most accurate tool in each representation level i.e. developing four basic IR systems. Then, the authors compare two rank aggregation approaches which combine the results of these systems. The first approach is based on linear combination, while the second exploits classification-based meta-search.

Findings

Combining different word representation levels, consistently and significantly enhances IR results. The proposed classification-based approach outperforms linear combination and all the basic systems.

Research limitations/implications

The work stands by a standard experimental comparative study which assesses several NLP tools and combining approaches on different test collections and IR models. Thus, it may be helpful for future research works to choose the most suitable tools and develop more sophisticated methods for handling the complexity of Arabic language.

Originality/value

The originality of the idea is to consider that the richness of Arabic is an exploitable characteristic and no more a challenging limit. Thus, the authors combine 4 different morphological levels for the first time in Arabic IR. This approach widely overtook previous research results.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2020-0515

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 46 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

1 – 3 of 3
Per page
102050