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This research aims to contrast bid competitiveness with respect to the average bid auction (ABA) and the non-ABA bidding formats used by the Public Works Department (PWD) of Malaysia.

The research uses the ordinary least square regression and the Monte–Carlo simulation to point out significant predictors which affect the bid ratio and fitting probability distributions to bidding data, respectively.

This research shows that the bidding strategy adopted is dependent on the different formats used. In the ABA format, bidders are more likely to submit identical bid prices. In the non-ABA format, they bid according to the first-price auction strategy, which suggests greater variation between bid prices as a winning strategy and the reduction in the bid price to an estimated price ratio when more bidders bid.

Bidders lose more money when the distance between the project location and a firm’s operational office is greater. Best-fit probability density functions follow a gamma distribution for the ABA format and a Weibull distribution for the non-ABA format. The location and number of bidders affect bidders’ strategy to win.

This research presents empirical insights concerning the comparisons of different type of bidding formats practiced by PWD of Malaysia and its implications on the construction companies’ bidding behaviors especially when it comes to its economic consequences. The significant factors that affect the different auction mechanisms used can serve as a basis for improving the present methods employed by PWD and in other countries.

It is argued that the service-dominant (S-D) view of the value co-creation concept is mainly of a macro nature and is difficult to examine empirically. In this regard, marketing research using the micro-foundation theory proposes some conceptual models, through which relationships (involving value co-creation) at a micro/meso level may be studied. The purpose of this paper is to add to such exchanges regarding value co-creation and conceptualize the link of embeddedness of an actor (in a service-ecosystem) to their engagement in the value co-creation process.

The authors draw on the S-D logic and the value co-creation concept and make propositions with regard to two micro-foundational concepts: actor engagement and actor embeddedness.

The authors show that actor embeddedness can be considered as an antecedent of actor engagement, which leads to value co-creation at a macro level and perceived value in context at the micro level.

The authors fill some gaps in literature with regard to S-D logic and value co-creation by combining two micro-foundational concepts: actor engagement and actor embeddedness and propose how through these, some macro-level outcomes such as value co-creation and resource integration may be determined.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and rank the factors that affect the bid/no bid decision according to their relative importance from the perspective of the contracting parties operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

The objectives of this research were investigated through a postal questionnaire, which covered a randomly selected sample of 63 contractors, 29 clients and 13 consultants operating in the construction industry in the Gaza strip. The questionnaire was structured based on related literature, the pilot study and actual factors affecting bidders' decisions to bid or not that arise from special conditions in the Gaza Strip. A total of 78 factors that affect the bid/no bid decision were identified. These factors were then ranked according to their relative importance to contracting parties operating in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

The results illustrate that the financial capability of the contractors, the financial capability of the clients, the financial values of the project, the due date of the payments, the availability of construction raw materials in local markets, and the stability of the construction industry were the most critical factors affecting the bid/no bid decision, as agreed by all respondents.

The paper provides supportive practical solutions for contractors, clients and consultants to enhance and improve bidding decisions. It is recommended that clients and consultants consider the financial capabilities, technical capabilities and staff competencies of the contractors during the awarding stage, and not simply focus on the lowest bid.

This article examines the dynamics of wireless R&D as a combined function of technology and market evolution, focusing on the management and organization of wireless R&D. From the postwar era to the late 1990s, the management and organization of wireless R&D capabilities has been effectively reversed. Industry thrust has shifted from closed specifications, central innovation and domestic market to open specifications, distributed innovation and global networking. The old era is reflected by the classic Bell Labs; the new era by Nokia. Due to the alternation of sustaining and disruptive change, no wireless company can survive without incessant innovation. In this rivalry, the winners are companies that best match their organizational capabilities with the changing industry opportunities.

Early involvement of the construction team is increasingly utilized in demanding projects to incorporate versatile expertise in their planning. For public owners this is a challenge since they are obliged to use competitive, transparent team selection based on the ‘most economically advantageous’ criterion which ensures that both price and quality viewpoints are taken into account. In the case of early involvement, the price component naturally does not include the total price, but may consist only of the fee-percentages of competing service providers. This study examines such a selection situation in project alliancing in the European context and seeks to find a way to integrate the fee component in a multi-criteria selection system and determine reasonable fees for different levels of capabilities. The study builds on the performance difference between different capabilities, derived from a survey of practitioners, and determines an indifference curve arithmetically for the planning of a selection method. The influence of the owner‘s risk attitude and risk premiums are also considered exploratively based on the pricing methods of the theory of finance.

This paper supplements and extends consideration of quantitative models with application to building (costs and) prices by examining human elements inherent in modelling. In considering the concepts of modelling, attention is focused on the recently developed sociology of science, which questions the traditional perspective of total separation of a reality from the observer—the ‘objective’ basis of scientific positivism. It is argued that human activities are fundamental in, and inseparable from, reality and so, they are integral in modelling. The aim of modelling should be to enhance understanding and knowledge rather than to secure inert objectivity. Application to modelling of prices of building projects investigates how prices are formulated, which prices are commonly modelled and the impact of the decision‐makers involved. It is concluded that new models are required, perhaps developed through methodological pluralism, which identify people‐oriented variables and assumptions explicitly. Further, the models should be stochastic and with sound bases in theories of economics and human behaviour to ensure that users are aware of the major variabilities in the processes modelled and so, by realistically informing, promote better decision making.

Fierce competition drives software vendors to rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) strategies and to continuously match new releases with customers’ needs and competitors’ moves. Such recurrent release practices pose specific challenges for software vendors which shape how they service customers. To address these challenges, this paper aims to apply service science to innovate strategies for SaaS release management.

Based on action research methodology, the authors collaborated closely with Software Inc., an alias for a large multinational software provider, to apply service-dominant logic systematically, to analyze and improve its SaaS release management process and to support ongoing value co-creation with its customers.

The authors provide a detailed account of how Software Inc. improved its SaaS release management practices; they extend current understanding of service innovation dynamics in SaaS environments and offer a model of value co-creation in SaaS release management grounded in the findings from Software Inc.

The research draws on a single case study with particular characteristics. Still, it allows for analytical generalizations with both theoretical and practical implications for how SaaS managers can improve recurrent release practices based on foundational service-dominant logic principles.

The authors suggest that SaaS managers concentrate on knowledge-sharing with customers, ensure continuous communication among teams supporting the service, re-organize release management to enhance the value co-creation process, use technology to improve customer service experiences and use service mapping to improve release management and service quality.

The authors bridge service-dominant logic principles and SaaS knowledge by demonstrating how service-dominant logic can be used to improve SaaS release practices and by offering conceptual and practical knowledge about value co-creation between customers and suppliers in SaaS contexts.

There has been a great deal of quantitative, survey research produced in the last thirty years which states that there is underachievement amongst ethnic minority children in English schools. This quantitative research reveals an increasingly complex picture of ethnic minority achievement and underachievement. Early work tended to simply demonstrate that ethnic minority children were underachieving in school (Little, 1972; Mabey, 1981; Mabey, 1986), this then shifted (as research became more sophisticated, gender and class were introduced as variables and pupils ceased to be simply categorised as black or white) to the identified achievement of some groups and the underachievement of others (e.g. Brent, 1994; Craft & Craft, 1983; DfES, 2003a, b; Drew & Gray, 1990; ILEA, 1990; Kysel, 1988; Sammons, 1995).

Delays are an endemic feature of the construction industry. Typically, when a delay occurs in a project, the project manager often expedites progress through activity‐crashing with respect to available float and time‐cost relationships. An accelerated schedule is thus obtained either by prescribing overtime working hours or by procuring additional resources or a combination of both. However, excessively prolonged overtime work can generate quality problems, such as rework, and additional resources. With this in mind, there is a need for a model to assist project managers with understanding the complex nature of attaining a trade‐off between overtime working and the procurement of additional resources. Thus, using system dynamics modelling, the effects of prolonged overtime work on project cost and quality are examined. To overcome project delays, several options representing various combinations of prescribing over‐time work and injecting additional resources are analysed. Utility theory is then applied to determine the most appropriate solution for mitigating project delays. The modelling approach offered in this paper should be particularly useful for large projects and for projects on confined sites where potential cost savings and improved quality standards are likely to be the most significant.

Service scholars are finding that institutions – enduring social structures, such as rules, norms, beliefs – are increasingly important in theorizing on service-related phenomena. The purpose of this paper is to advance the use of institutional theory in service research by synthesizing the key insights from institutional theory that have been applied to service-related phenomena and developing a research agenda to guide the future use of institutional theory in service research.

This paper is an integrative literature review covering 68 articles from major service research and marketing journals that adopt institutional concepts and frameworks to study service-related phenomena.

The paper maps the “institutional turn” of service research, that is, the increasing tendency to draw on institutional theory for theoretical insights within service research and builds a conceptual framework of the institutional stabilization and destabilization mechanisms that explain endurance and change in service phenomena. The paper also proposes a research agenda that outlines four previously ignored aspects of institutions that have important implications for service research.

In addition to synthesizing insights and proposing directions for future research, the paper highlights specific theoretical and methodological considerations for the future use of institutional theory within service research. The literature review is limited to the 13 major service research and marketing journals.

This paper is the first literature review of the use of institutional theory in service research.