Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate risk disclosure (CRD) practices and determinants in the annual reports of Egyptian listed companies during the 2011 political crisis (uprising) in Egypt.

Content analysis of the annual reports of a sample of non-financial listed companies representing different industry sectors was conducted to investigate attributes and factors underlying their risk disclosures.

The findings demonstrate that companies disclosed more monetary, future and good risk information. The results show a positive and significant relationship between company size and the level of CRD, a positive but insignificant relationship between the extent of CRD and some company-specific characteristics: industry type, profitability and cross-listing, and a negative and insignificant relationship between corporate reserves and the level of CRD.

A larger sample size would be needed for greater generalization of the findings. This study extends the literature on CRD by examining CRD practices at a time of current and ongoing crisis. However, more research is needed to examine variations in CRD practices before and after the 2011 political crisis.

The results could be used by information users, companies and the capital market authority to inform policy-making and tighten regulations to improve CRD. Recommendations are made for improving the quality and informativeness of risk information.

It is important to investigate CRD practices, considering the dearth of research, particularly in emerging capital markets and during crises, when companies are exposed to more, especially uncontrollable, risks. This study fills a void in literature by examining CRD practices during the 2011 political crisis in Egypt.

This paper tests for a positive, a negative and a nonlinear relationship between the share of ownership controlled by firm managers and the management decision to invest in research and development (R&D). Likewise, it examines whether or not institutional investors induce corporate managers with ownership stakes to spend on R&D.

It examines a sample of the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) all-shares firms over a longitudinal period from 2009 to 2018. The R&D is measured by the natural logarithm of a firm's R&D spending and a firm's R&D expenditure scaled by its total assets at the end of the year. The results are estimated using the year/industry fixed effects as well as the firm fixed effects.

The results show a positive effect on R&D spending at a lower level of managerial ownership, and a negative impact at a higher managerial ownership level. The findings jointly suggest an inverse U-shaped nonlinear relationship between ownership by firm managers and management decisions on R&D spending. The results also demonstrate that the effect of institutional investors' ownership on R&D spending decisions is observable only at a lower level of managerial ownership and disappears at a higher level.

The results shed the light on the role of managerial ownership in promoting firm innovation. They suggest an optimal level of equity ownership by corporate managers that maximizes R&D spending, implying that firms can effectively manage their R&D spending by restructuring their managerial ownership to maintain an appropriate level of managerial ownership to align managerial interests with shareholder interests by either increasing it to the optimal level or decreasing it when it becomes above this level. The findings also support the limited degree of monitoring and the long-term perspective offered by institutional investors in the UK

The study provides new evidence on the non-monotonic effect of the share of ownership controlled by firm managers on R&D spending decisions. It also expands the growing body of literature and contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of institutional investors in the UK.

This paper aims to propose a system for defect detection in constructed elements that is able to indicate deformity positions. It also evaluates the defects in finishing materials of constructed building elements to support the subjective visual quality investigation of the aesthetics of an architectural work.

This strategy depends on defect features analysis that evaluates the defect value in digital images using digital image processing methods. The research uses the three-dimensional (3D) modeling techniques and image processing algorithms to generate a system that is able to perform some of the monitoring activities by computers. Based on the collected site scans, a 3D model is created for the building. Then, several images can be exported from the 3D model to investigate a specific element. Different image denoizing techniques are compared such as mean filter, median filter, Wiener filter and Split–Bregman iterations. The most efficient technique is implemented in the system. Then, the following six different methods are used for image segmentation to separate the concerned object from the background; color segmentation, region growing segmentation, histogram segmentation, local standard deviation segmentation, adaptive threshold segmentation and mean-shift cluster segmentation.

The proposed system is able to detect the cracks and defected areas in finishing works and calculate the percentage of the defected area compared to the total captured area in the photo with high accuracy.

The proposed system increases the precision of decision-making by decreasing the contribution of human subjective judgment. Investigation of different finishing surfaces is applied to validate the proposed system.

Due to the increasing size and complexity of construction projects, construction engineering and management involves the coordination of many complex and dynamic processes and relies on the analysis of uncertain, imprecise and incomplete information, including subjective and linguistically expressed information. Various modelling and computing techniques have been used by construction researchers and applied to practical construction problems in order to overcome these challenges, including fuzzy hybrid techniques. Fuzzy hybrid techniques combine the human-like reasoning capabilities of fuzzy logic with the capabilities of other techniques, such as optimization, machine learning, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) and simulation, to capitalise on their strengths and overcome their limitations. Based on a review of construction literature, this chapter identifies the most common types of fuzzy hybrid techniques applied to construction problems and reviews selected papers in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique to illustrate their capabilities for addressing construction challenges. Finally, this chapter discusses areas for future development of fuzzy hybrid techniques that will increase their capabilities for solving construction-related problems. The contributions of this chapter are threefold: (1) the limitations of some standard techniques for solving construction problems are discussed, as are the ways that fuzzy methods have been hybridized with these techniques in order to address their limitations; (2) a review of existing applications of fuzzy hybrid techniques in construction is provided in order to illustrate the capabilities of these techniques for solving a variety of construction problems and (3) potential improvements in each category of fuzzy hybrid technique in construction are provided, as areas for future research.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations represented in religious motivation and customer equity (CE) drivers, respectively, and switching costs (SCs), on customer’s retention to conventional banks and their switching intention (SI) to Islamic ones in the context of the Egyptian banking sector.

Based on the literature, a theoretical model is proposed and examined using structural equation modeling (AMOS) 24. Data were obtained using an intercept sample of 273 conventional bank customers in two major cities in Egypt, namely, Cairo and Giza.

The results supported the positive effect of CE and SCs on customer retention (CR) to conventional banks. Value equity has direct positive effect on CR. In addition, SC significantly mediated the relationship between relationship equity (RE) and service encounter employee’s equity (SEEE) and CR. Finally, religious motivations positively and significantly influence customers SI to Islamic banks.

CE, including all its drivers, namely, value, brand, relationship and SEEE, are the best force of CR in the Egyptian banking sector. The mediating role of SC in the relation between RE and SEEE and CR is perceived as a barrier to switch, instead of reflecting real desire from customers to stay tuned to their conventional banks. In addition, religious motivation should be considered while planning banking services because of its significant direct effect on customers SI from conventional banks to Islamic ones. Finally, both utilitarian extrinsic motivation and hedonic intrinsic ones are influencing customer’s retention and SI, respectively.

This paper develops and adds a fourth driver to previously examined and validated CE drivers, namely, SEEE. Further, it provides empirical analysis to the effect of religious motivation and CE drivers on SCs, CR and SI in a developing and Islamic dominating context, namely, Egypt. Moreover, it introduces a framework that could be examined and validated in other Islamic contexts to further comprehend bank customers' switching behavior. Yet, the current research focused on the Egyptian banking sector only, where the individual customers represent the sampling unit.

Nowadays, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts are being widely used to perform industrial and infrastructure projects because of several reasons like high speed of implementation. However, these contracts are always accompanied by high risks and uncertainties. Thus, selection of the right EPC contractor has significant importance. This paper aims to present a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for EPC contractor prequalification.

First, the EPC contractor prequalification criteria are defined by using literature review and interviewing experts. Second, the weights of criteria are determined by interviewing experts. Then, each EPC contractor is evaluated in each criterion. Finally, fuzzy weighted average (FWA) approach is employed to select the right contractor among potential EPC contractors.

The proposed model is prepared as an applicable model for clients to select the right EPC contractors among contractors who want to conduct the project.

As a lack of applicable model does exist to assign the prequalification of EPC contractors, this study is one of the first research studies which proposed a fuzzy MCDM model for evaluation of EPC contractors. To cope with the uncertainty of the prequalification problem, fuzzy logic has been used. Using fuzzy sets leads to reaching more reliable results. Also, a real case study is provided to explain the proposed model.

To significantly adopt and improve indoor energy efficiency in building infrastructure in developing countries can be a challenging venture. Thus, this study aimed to assess the satisfaction of indoor environmental quality and its effect on energy use intensity and efficient among student housing.

The study is quantitative and hinged on the contrast theory. A survey of 1,078 student residents living in purpose-built student housing was contacted. Using Post-Occupancy Evaluation and Multiple Linear Regression, critical variables such as thermal comfort, visual comfort and indoor air quality and 21 indicators were assessed. Data on annual energy consumption and total square metre of the indoor area were utilised to assess energy use intensity.

The study found a direct relationship between satisfaction with indoor environmental quality and energy use intensity. The study showed that students were more satisfied with thermal comfort conditions than visual and indoor air quality. Overall, these indicators contributed to 75.9% kWh/m² minimum and 43.2% kWh/m² maximum energy use intensity in student housing in Ghana. High occupancy and small useable space in student housing resulted in high energy use intensity.

Inclusions of sustainable designs and installation of smart mechanical systems are feedback to student housing designers. Again, adaptation to retrofitting ideas can facilitate energy efficiency in the current state of student housing in Ghana.

Earlier studies have argued for and against the satisfaction of indoor environmental quality in student housing. However, these studies have neglected to examine the impact on energy use intensity. This is novel because the assessment of energy use intensity in this study has a positive influence on active design incorporation among student housing.

It is estimated that more than half of the construction industry’s projects encounter significant cost overruns and major delays, resulting in the industry having a tarnished reputation. Therefore, it is crucial to identify key project cost and schedule performance factors. However, despite the attempts of numerous researchers, their results have been inconsistent. Most of the literature has focused solely on the construction phase budget and time overruns; the engineering/design and procurement phase costs and schedule performances have been rarely studied. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The objective of this study was primarily to identify and prioritize engineering, procurement and construction key performance factors (KPFs) and to strategize ways to prevent performance delays and cost overruns. To achieve these objectives, more than 200 peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings and other scholarly publications were studied and categorized based on industry type, physical location, data collection and analysis methods.

It was concluded that both the time required to complete engineering/construction phases and the cost of completing them can be significantly affected by design changes. The two main causes of delays and cost overruns in the procurement phase are construction material shortages and price fluctuations. Other factors affecting all phases of the project are poor economic condition, equipment and labor shortages, delays in owners’ timely decision making, poor communication between stakeholders, poor site management and supervision, clients’ financial issues and severe weather conditions. A list of phase-based strategies which address the issue of time/cost overruns is presented herein.

The findings of this study address the potential confusion of the industry’s practitioners related to the inconsistent list of potential KPFs and their preventive measurements, and pave the way for the construction research community to conduct future performance-related studies.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a survey undertaken to identify and rank factors that are responsible for delay in the schedule of strategic industrial projects in Iran.

The survey covered 40 factors identified by previous literature and modified by 20 project professionals to fit the Iranian industrial culture. These factors were grouped into six major categories. For each category, the Shannon entropy weighting technique was applied.

The analysis of the 64 returned out of 87 randomly distributed questionnaires revealed that “sanctions” from political group, “cash flow problems” from financial group, “equipment availability and failure” from technical group, “project manager competence” from managerial group, “material procurement” from procurement group and “unqualified workforce” from human resource group were ranked as the highest contributing factors.

The findings of this study are of practical use for project professionals and experts seeking to improve the schedule performance of industrial projects.

System dynamics has several applications in the built environment, and few studies indicate that it has potential in evaluating sustainability. Sustainability in the built environment involves numerous entities and multiple trade-offs. Hence, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method is ideal for promoting sustainability-based decision-making in the built environment. Therefore, this study integrates system dynamics with an MCDM method to enable the sustainability assessment by capturing the time-induced dynamic changes affecting long time sustainability performance of buildings.

Conventional sustainability assessment tools in the built environment lack a comprehensive evaluation that balances the needs of the society, economy and environment. This study develops a system dynamics-based framework to enable sustainability-conscious decision-making and policy analysis in the built environment.

Various material, technology and water-related policies specific to the buildings are investigated for a case study building. It is found that the effect of penetration of renewable energy technology to the tune of 80% and above in the energy mix is a much superior policy in sustainability improvement in comparison to material and water-related policies. The study also demonstrates the effect of weights assigned for the different indicators on sustainability-based decisions.

The study provides a methodological framework for a sustainability-based decision support system for the built environment that enables dynamic performance evaluation by coupling system dynamics with the MCDM. This coupling further strengthens system dynamics as a decision-making and policy analysis for sustainability evaluation in the built environment.