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Cost overruns are an inevitable issue in design and build (D&B) projects. In D&B projects, causes for cost overruns can be managed by adopting appropriate building information modelling (BIM) functions. Because there is a research gap in synergy between the use of BIM for mitigating cost overruns in D&B projects, this study aims to evaluate the adaptability of BIM to manage cost overrun issues in them.

Research objectives were attained through a quantitative research approach adopting the Delphi technique, which consists of three rounds of a questionnaire survey. Through statistical tools, the collected data were analysed.

This research revealed the ten most crucial causes for cost overruns in D&B projects, where continuous changes in designs and drawings are the top causes. Change and revision management and interoperability are the most crucial BIM functions to address the aforementioned cause. Subsequently, 16 enablers, 26 barriers and 19 strategies to implement BIM to manage the identified significant causes of cost overruns were overviewed.

This study addresses the literature gap pertaining to the cost overrun in D&B projects and the application of BIM by studying the causes for cost overrun, suggesting BIM functions to mitigate the above cause. Moreover, this study assessed the probable barriers and enablers for BIM adoption in construction projects from D&B perspective.

The construction industry is shifting towards becoming more circular by reducing waste, reusing building materials and embracing regenerative solutions for energy generation and biodiversity conservation. Thus, construction professionals must perform diversified services to achieve a circular built environment (CBE). Implementing resource planning and waste management in CBE has already posed challenges to the quantity surveying profession; thus, quantity surveyors (QSs) should be equipped with new roles and competencies to tackle challenges in achieving a CBE. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the functions and competencies of QSs at the design and building material sourcing stages in achieving a CBE according to 3R principles.

The research apprehended a qualitative approach, including two expert interview rounds adhering to the Delphi technique with 14 and 11 experts per each round. Manual content analysis was incorporated to analyse the collected data.

The research findings revealed the important roles and competencies of QSs in achieving a CBE. In addition, essential functions and competencies were categorised according to the 3R principles (reduce, reuse, recycle) to successfully implement CBE during the Design and Building Material Sourcing stages. According to the 3R principles of CBE, cost control, cost planning, feasibility studies, measurement and quantification, risk management, value engineering and innovations and technologies were well-received by most interviewees as essential roles of QSs during the Design and Building Material Sourcing stages. Further, basic/mandatory competencies (personal, interpersonal, professional practice and business skills), economic analysis, BIM management, cost management and risk management are highly regarded by experts for QS as important competencies to achieve CBE.

With new construction trends, QSs must enhance their conventional roles and competencies and search for new skills and competencies. Those skills and competencies could be linked to the CE concept, either directly or indirectly. Since QS holds a prominent place in sustainable construction in CBE, adapting to changes in the construction industry such as CBE is timely for QSs. Further, there is a shortage of literature regarding QSs' roles and competencies in achieving a CBE; thus, this study will contribute by identifying new avenues for QSs in achieving a CBE in the practice and the research.

The changing role of quantity surveyors in the new paradigm of sustainable construction requires studies into new competencies and skills for the profession. The impact of sustainable construction on quantity surveying services, engagement and how they manage challenges provided an indication of the success indicators of the quantity surveying profession in meeting the sustainable construction needs.

A five-point Likert scale was developed from the list of quantity surveying firms in Singapore. An 85% response rate from 60 quantity surveying firms contacted in this study provided 51 responses. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were employed to evaluate the findings.

The factor analysis categorised the drivers derived from the literature into awareness of sustainable construction, adversarial role on green costing; carbon cost planning; valuing a sustainable property; common knowledge of sustainable construction; and lack of experience in sustainable construction.

The research findings supported the idea of increased sustainable construction skills in quantity surveying education, research and training.

The dearth of quantity surveyors with sustainable construction experience must focus on quantity surveying professional bodies and higher education. The quantity surveying profession needs reskilling in green costing and carbon cost planning to meet the needs of sustainable construction.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) enable the synergistic integration of virtual models with the physical environment. This integration is gaining recognition for its potential to enhance construction project information management, thereby contributing to improved cost management in construction. Similarly, quantity surveyor (QS) plays a key role in construction projects by estimating and monitoring construction costs. Consequently, this research aims to explore redefining the role of QSs by integrating CPS.

The research adopted an interpretivism stance to collect and analyse data. Two rounds of 21 and 19 semi-structured interviews were conducted, with experts selected through heterogeneous purposive sampling. Code-based content analysis was used to analyse the data using NVivo12. MS Visio data visualisation tool was used to present the findings.

It is empirically proven the potential of CPS to facilitate nine key roles of QSs in all stages of the RIBA plan of work through the identification of 15 CPS applications and technologies. Nine key roles of QSs that CPS can facilitate were identified as preliminary estimation, measurement and quantification, contract administration, preparation of BOQ, interim valuation and payments, tender and contract documentation, cost planning, cost control and procurement advice. The study explored how adopting CPS technologies can transform traditional quantity surveying practices and enhance their value within the construction industry.

The findings add to the body of knowledge by redefining the role of QS through the integration of CPS for the first time and then by highlighting the usages of CPS in the construction industry rather than limiting it to a specific sector of the construction industry, as previous studies have done. This research uncovers several other research arenas on CPS as being the very first research to evaluate CPS to facilitate key roles of QSs. The findings can enhance the awareness and the practical implementation of CPS by intervening to form more partnerships among application developers and industry leaders.

Construction professionals are the major contributors to developing a sustainable construction industry, whereas architects, engineers and quantity surveyors are the key construction professionals who must play extraordinary roles in achieving better sustainable construction. Therefore, this study aims to identify the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The study adopted a mixed research approach. A literature review and preliminary semi-structured interviews were used to appraise the job roles of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors in addressing challenges associated with climate change. The data collected through the qualitative approach were used in an online questionnaire survey, and the findings were analysed using the relative index method.

The findings highlight that regardless of the knowledge of the professional category on green rating tools, carbon footprint, adaptation of renewable energies for the reduction of energy consumption, building information modelling-related applications and waste management concepts/practices are the foremost job attributes required for the key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing challenges associated with climate change.

The results from this study provide a handful of guidance to construction industry professionals, national and international professional institutions, non-governmental organisations and other relevant authorities to address climate change within the built environment by identifying ways for improving the relevant key job attributes of construction industry professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the job attributes of key Sri Lankan construction professionals in addressing the challenges associated with climate change.

Quantity surveying is a profession that blends engineering, construction and economics. To be competent is to have the ability to apply the set of related knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a task effectively. This paper examines the competency requirements for quantity surveyors (QSs) in the face of changing and increasing client needs.

Based on a detailed meta-analysis of the literature, 12 basic/core and 16 evolving competencies are identified. Primary data were gathered through a field survey involving practicing QSs from client, consultant and contractor organisations, and university students undertaking QS programmes in Malaysia. The data obtained were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools.

The significance of the basic/core and evolving competencies are presented. Overall, the most important contemporary skills are cost planning, valuation of works, measurement/quantification and contract documentation. The evolved roles require expertise in communication and negotiation, ethics and professional conduct and value management. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates there are misaligned expectations of the proficiency levels needed to provide contemporary and future services between practitioners in client/consultant organisations, contractors and new generation students.

The findings provide guidance on the education, training and practice of quantity surveying to deal with emerging challenges in the dynamic built environments in Malaysia and beyond.

The unethical practices of quantity surveyors (QSs) are affecting quality of construction projects, leading to projects’ time and cost overruns. However, the unethical practices of QSs specifically from contractor and consultant firms are currently understudied. Therefore, this research aims to investigate and categorize the unethical practices of QSs.

A questionnaire survey was employed and distributed to the QSs who work in the contractor and consultant firms. Ninety-five responses were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U-test, factor analysis and partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings unveiled disparity between the QSs who work in the consultant and contractor firms, as evidenced by 16 out of the 33 practices displaying statistical significance. The factor analysis results grouped 24 practices into seven components. The PLS-SEM analysis revealed that “contractors ‘collusion and consultants’ biased tender evaluation” had the most significant impact on the perceptions of ethical standards’ declination.

The findings could serve as guideline for the management of consultant and contractor firms with QSs for better management procedures to avoid any intentionally or unintentionally unethical practices that may impact negatively on projects’ time, cost and quality.

This is one of the first studies investigating the perspectives of QSs from the contractors and consultancy firms’ perspective by employing factor analysis and PLS-SEM. The findings could contribute to the body of knowledge in tackling the ethical transgressions specifically related to contractors’ or consultants’ QSs.

This paper presents a developed spatial-temporal analysis framework for the case of investigating the business performance of construction consultancy services (CCS) in China.

The spatial-temporal analysis is based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The spatial analysis follows the DEA results under a contemporaneous benchmark technology and a virtual decision-making unit, consisting of ranking analysis, cluster analysis and variation analysis. The temporal analysis is reliant on the DEA results under a global benchmark technology and the time value of money, including trend analysis and driving force analysis containing pure technical and scale efficiency factors.

Three CCS types in China are investigated, including engineering survey and design, construction supervision and procurement agency. The performance rank order and cluster classifications are mainly related to economic development levels. Engineering survey and design demonstrates the best performance and higher imbalances; however, construction supervision and procurement agency illustrate lower performance and imbalances. Scale efficiency significantly promotes business performance, whereas pure technical efficiency plays an inconspicuous role.

The CCS promote technical efficiency by developing their service and innovation levels. The service of engineering survey and design registered in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong is recommended for entering the service market in China.

The spatial-temporal analysis framework was developed, which is generic and provides a pathway to measure, compare and assess performance comprehensively. The CCS business performance is firstly measured.

Cybersecurity has received growing attention from academic researchers and industry practitioners as a strategy to accelerate performance gains and social sustainability. Meanwhile, firms are usually prone to cyber-risks that emanate from their supply chain partners especially third-party logistics providers (3PLs). Thus, it is crucial to implement cyber-risks management in 3PLs to achieve social sustainability in supply chains. However, these 3PLs are faced with critical difficulties which tend to hamper the consistent growth of cybersecurity. This paper aims to analyze these critical difficulties.

Data were sourced from 40 managers in Nigerian 3PLs with the aid of questionnaires. A novel quantitative methodology based on the synergetic combination of interval-valued neutrosophic analytic hierarchy process (IVN-AHP) and multi-objective optimization on the basis of a ratio analysis plus the full multiplicative form (MULTIMOORA) is applied. Sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis with other decision models were conducted.

Barriers were identified from published literature, finalized using experts’ inputs and classified under organizational, institutional and human (cultural values) dimensions. The results highlight the most critical dimension as human followed by organizational and institutional. Also, the results pinpointed indigenous beliefs (e.g. cyber-crime spiritualism), poor humane orientation, unavailable specific tools for managing cyber-risks and skilled workforce shortage as the most critical barriers that show the highest potential to elicit other barriers.

By illustrating the most significant barriers, this study will assist policy makers and industry practitioners in developing strategies in a coordinated and sequential manner to overcome these barriers and thus, achieve socially sustainable supply chains.

This research pioneers the use of IVN-AHP-MULTIMOORA to analyze cyber-risks management barriers in 3PLs for supply chain social sustainability in a developing nation.