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Airports are booming in China, to enlarge their capacities and stimulate economic development. Large-span spatial steel structures are commonly used in the terminal buildings of airport projects. Their advantages include prefabrication, strength, usability, adaptability and aesthetic quality. To manage large-span spatial steel structure projects, building information modeling (BIM) is recommended. Although there are plenty of studies on BIM application in steel structure projects, it is still rare to apply BIM to optimize the schedule and cost of steel structures, especially for airport projects.

This paper aims to develop a framework in which BIM and a time-cost optimization model are integrated to optimize construction costs and the duration of large-span spatial steel structure projects. A real case study was conducted to verify the feasibility of the BIM-based time-cost optimization model in an airport terminal building, which was built with a large-span spatial steel structure.

The results preliminarily support the reliability of the proposed BIM-based time-cost optimization model. The BIM-based time-cost optimization model will benefit construction planning for professionals and enrich relevant research on the application of BIM in large-span spatial steel structure projects.

The steel structure is difficult to control budgets and progress. This paper is expected to be adopted for optimizing the time and cost plans for projects involving steel structures in airport terminal buildings.

The construction industry has experienced an irreversible digital transformation to smart construction. Many countries have published supporting policies to encourage the development of smart construction. However, there is no universally valid approach. This paper thus aims to evaluate smart construction policies issued by 24 pilot cities in China and identify applicable policy tools and their impact.

This paper collected 33 governmental documents on smart construction through the official websites in China. Different policy tools were classified into supply-side, demand-side and environment-side categories. The supporting policies of smart construction development in pilot cities were quantitatively evaluated by using a policy modeling consistency index (PMC-index) model.

Supply-type and environment-type policy instruments were used more frequently than demand-type policies in 24 pilot cities. Most of the 24 pilot cities had an evaluation of PMC-index over 8, realizing the consistency of smart construction policies. Eight pilot cities had an evaluation of PMC-index of 6–7.99, realizing acceptable consistency. Only Foshan City has an evaluation of PMC-index below 4, which may reflect a poor consistency of policy implementation. The paper proposes consistencies of smart construction policies of 24 pilot cities and valid policy instruments, including the presale of commercial residential buildings, additional bonus points in the tendering process and cooperating with multiple departments when promoting smart construction.

This paper contributes to expanding policy evaluation studies in the smart construction field and provides concrete suggestions for policymakers to formulate more effective and specific policies and strategies for the development of smart construction.

The construction industry is experiencing digital transformation, which is also defined as intelligent construction. With the rise of intelligent construction, job characteristics are changing rapidly. Current knowledge about job competencies required by intelligent construction is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore job competencies related to intelligent construction by text mining recruitment information. It is expected to reveal the trend of talent development for the intelligent construction industry.

A total of 375 job advertisements regarding the demanding professionals and industrial workers related to intelligent construction were collected and analyzed to reveal the demands of the current labor market. Different job posts related to intelligent construction were classified into 11 categories. Job competencies were extracted and analyzed using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model, frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) algorithm and k-means cluster analysis method. The text mining results identified 10 job competencies.

Currently, there was a high demand for high-tech talents in the labor market related to intelligent construction. Those high-tech job posts, such as software engineers and R&D staff, required digital technology, R&D skills, electrical automation knowledge and programming capability. Current employees demanding for intelligent construction are expected to be capable of both using information technology and having a general knowledge of the construction industry.

Through text mining of current job advertisements, the overall demand for compound talents in the labor market of intelligent construction were explored. The results provide empirical reference for personnel training and talent cultivation in the development of intelligent construction. Higher educational institutions, human resources professionals, as well as experts that are already employed or aspire to be employed in intelligent construction companies, would benefit from the results of our analysis.

China is experiencing tremendous changes of rapid urbanization and aging society. The development of age-friendly communities (AFCs) has been encouraged for improving health and well-being of older adults. Hence, this study aimed to deepen the understanding of AFCs in China and to investigate the integrated relationships between AFCs and the quality of life (QoL) of older adults, using a large-scale questionnaire survey.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hefei, China, to investigate the complicated relationships between the components of AFCs and the QoL of older adults. Ultimately, 1,383 valid questionnaires were collected from senior respondents aged more than 60 years. Several statistical methods, including reliability analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), were adopted to develop an integrated model for AFC components and the QoL of older adults.

Six AFC components and four older adults' QoL factors were identified. The SEM results revealed integrated relationships between specific AFC components and the QoL of older adults: (1) physical QoL was affected by outdoor spaces, public transportation, housing and community and health services; (2) psychological QoL was predicted by most of the AFC components except community and health services; and (3) environmental QoL and social QoL were both influenced by outdoor spaces, communication and information and community and health services.

In order to enhance the QoL of older adults, it is suggested that outdoor spaces need to be enlarged by fully using the facilities and playgrounds of middle schools and renovating the older buildings. The locations of public transportation stations are recommended to be revised to be within a 5-minute walking distance of senior residents. Improvements to the social environment of AFCs, by increasing the coverage of medical services and creating multiple approaches to recreational activities, are encouraged.

These findings have empirical significance for urban planners and policy-makers in regard to identifying major components of AFCs and understanding the effect of those components on the QoL of older adults.

To describe how Town Star Ltd – a leading company in the coal industry in Shanxi Province in China - combines traditional culture with modern management methods.

Outlines the main strands of traditional Chinese thinking and explains the relevance of Confucianism and Taoist philosophy to organizational performance and culture. Illustrates this with a case study that provides examples of a culture-driven management model.

Chinese civilization stretches back 5,000 years. But when the planned economy gave way to an “open door” policy in 1978, there was a drive for wholesale Westernization. Local enterprises adopted Western management ideas, focusing on profit maximization and quantitative management. Three decades of unprecedented change and rapid economic growth followed, until the world economy suffered a major setback in 2008. China recovered comparatively quickly from the global financial crisis, but the experience raised questions about dependence on Western management practices. Instead of regarding Chinese traditions as backward and antiquated, many people have started to ask what traditional culture can contribute to economic development.

Illustrates the ways that a “Yin Yang” approach to human resource management can enhance core competitiveness.

Draws attention to opportunities for future research into the ways that indigenous firms are developing in China following the global financial crisis in 2008.

With the continuous improvement of public–private partnership (PPP) projects, the participants' value creation goals are not only limited to achieving the basic performance objectives but also to realising value added. However, the effect of traditional contract management on realising the value creation objectives of PPP projects is limited. According to the view of multifunctional contract, joint-contract functions that integrate contract control and flexibility are likely to be effective in enhancing the value creation of PPP projects. This study aims to explore the effects of joint-contract functions on PPP project value creation and relevant influencing mechanism by investigating the mediating effect of in-role behaviour and extra-role behaviour.

After collecting 258 valid questionnaires from PPP professionals in China, this study used structural equation modelling to validate the hypotheses.

Contract control and flexibility can improve PPP project value creation. Specifically, contract control improves the achievement of the basic contract objectives of PPP projects, whereas contract flexibility enhances the achievement of the value-added of PPP projects. Moreover, only in-role behaviour mediates the effect of contract control on value creation. In addition, the mediating effect of extra-role behaviour on the impact of contract flexibility on value creation is stronger than that of in-role behaviour. The mediating effect of in- and extra-role behaviour is mainly reflected in the realisation of basic and value-added performance, respectively.

The findings of this study can help realise value creation in three ways. Firstly, new perspectives for PPP project value creation should be proposed by combining the improvement of contract objectives and the realisation of the participants' implicit demands. Secondly, the effects of different contract functions on value creation should be analysed instead of a single dimension of contractual governance. Thirdly, the mediating effects of different types of cooperation behaviour that may influence the relationship between contractual governance and value creation should be evaluated.

This study verifies the impacts of different contract functions on PPP project value creation. In addition, cooperative behaviour is embedded as a mediating variable, and the mediated transmission path from contract function to cooperative behaviour and further to PPP project value creation is systematically analysed.

The information used for supervision by regulatory departments in public-private partnership (PPP) projects is primarily transmitted and processed by the PPP implementation department, which negatively impacts the information quality, leading to information asymmetry and undermining the overall effectiveness of supervision. This study aims to explore how to use blockchain to anchor the information used for supervision in PPP projects to the original information, to strengthen the oversight.

This paper adopts the principles of design science research (DSR) to design a conceptual framework that systematically organizes information along the information dissemination chain, ensuring the reliable anchoring of original information. Two-stage interviews involving experts from academia and industry are conducted, serving as formative and summative evaluations to guide the design.

The framework establishes a weak-centralized information organizing mode, including the design of governance community and on-chain and off-chain governance mechanisms. Feedback from experts is collected via interviews and the designed framework is thought to improve information used for supervision. Constructive suggestions are also collected and analyzed for further development.

This paper provides a novel example exploring the inspirations blockchain can bring to project governance, like exercising caution regarding the disorderly expansion of public sector authority in addressing information disadvantages and how to leverage blockchain to achieve this. Technical details conveyed by the framework deepen understanding of how blockchain benefits and the challenges faced in successful implementation for practitioners and policymakers. The targeted evaluation serves as rigorous validation, guiding experts to provide reliable feedback and richer insights by offering them a more cognitively convenient scenario.

Promoting low-carbon in the construction industry is important for achieving the overall low-carbon goals. Public–private partnership is very popular in public infrastructure projects. However, different perceptions of low-carbon and behaviors of public and private sectors can hinder the realization of low-carbon in these projects. In order to analyze the willingness of each stakeholder to cooperate towards low-carbon goals, an evolutionary game model is constructed.

An evolutionary game model that considers the opportunistic behavior of the participants is developed. The evolutionary stable strategies (ESSs) under different scenarios are examined, and the factors that influence the willingness to cooperate between the government and private investors are investigated.

The results illustrate that a well-designed system of profit distribution and subsidies can enhance collaboration. Excessive subsidies have negative impact on cooperation between the two sides, because these two sides can weaken income distribution and lead to the free-riding behavior of the government. Under the situation of two ESSs, there is also an optimal revenue distribution coefficient that maximizes the probability of cooperation. With the introduction of supervision and punishment mechanism, the opportunistic behavior of private investors is effectively constrained.

An evolutionary game model is developed to explore the cooperation between the public sector and the private sector in the field of low-carbon construction. Based on the analysis of the model, this paper summarizes the conditions and strategies that can enable the two sectors to cooperate.

This study aims to develop a collaborative governance framework (CGF) to systematically investigate the impeding factors (IFs) in terms of the operational sustainability of PPPs. It examines the transmission pattern (i.e. the way in which network members react to each other) of the IFs network.

Literature review and interview were adopted to identify the IFs. Then, with the data collected from the interview in China, the social network analysis and interpretive structure model were synergised to examine the chain reaction, driving and dependent powers, and hierarchical structure of the identified IFs.

The results reveal that the cognition, institutional, financial and participation aspects are key barriers confronted by PPP sustainability, and the government plays a leading role in controlling factors causing sustainability-related problems in PPPs. Weak government leadership and institutional environment were identified as the most fundamental reasons triggering a chain of IFs, while project governance and management activities act as bridge nodes that play an intermediary role in the IFs network.

This research contributes to the literature on PPP governance by (1) bridging the literature gap through the development of CGF for explaining the governance of PPP sustainability with a holistic view that considers both macro environment and operational project processes; and (2) identifying the transmission pattern of IFs network which uncovers the underlying dynamics causing the unsustainable operation of PPPs.

This research provides practitioners with a list of key checkpoints for preventing failure escalation, enables decision-makers to prioritise obstacle-mitigation efforts and develop a feasible process to control PPP operation, and offers management countermeasures to remove the key barriers impeding PPP sustainability.

This study is novel for adopting network-oriented techniques to quantify the relative importance of the IFs and examine the transmission pattern of the IFs system. Therefore, it visualises the complex underlying dynamics causing unsustainable PPP operation, identifies root and direct causes of PPP failures, and provides decision-makers with insights into sustaining PPP sustainability from a network-oriented perspective.