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The purpose of this paper is to explore the practice of engaging key project consultants for the development of green projects in Malaysia.

A qualitative approach is adopted in this research using the face-to-face semi-structured interview process with 18 respondents consisting of developers and architects of green projects that have obtained green certification by the Malaysian Green Building Index.

The engagement of consultants is divided into three stages: engagement method; consultant selection method; and evaluation process. The engagement method can be initiated by the client or through the architect. The direct selection is the preferred strategy in engaging architects, while open strategy is commonly adopted for engaging other key consultants. The evaluation process consists of request for proposal evaluation and negotiation before appointment is awarded. In addition, there are four main criteria in selecting the consultants: client’s preference, fee flexibility, green project requirement and consultant firm’s internal strengths.

The study is based on the Malaysian context and based on the engagement of main consultants in green development projects and, thus, cannot be generalised to other consultants’ engagement in conventional projects.

This research presents the process that can contribute to better planning, controlling and management of the consultants’ engagement process. The selection criteria shall form a reference in selecting the most suitable consultants for the project.

This study attempts to understand how consultants are engaged in green projects, an important management stage in project initiation, but has received little attention in the past.

Oman commitment for Sustainable Development Goals 2030 pushes green building at the forefront of construction industry. However, its green building progress is slower than other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and only a handful of local contractors have been involved in green project development. Understanding the barriers to green project delivery will open avenues for better project planning and preparation. This research aims to identify the barriers experienced by the contractors when constructing green buildings in Oman.

Qualitative research, via a semi-structured interview process, explores the barriers experienced by 14 contractors when constructing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building projects in Oman. Using NVivo 12 software, thematic analysis was conducted through the generation of coding and themes which enable the identification of the relevant barriers.

The research uncovered 10 barriers and grouped them into five categories. The five categories are as follows: (1) insufficient skills development, (2) lack of government support and regulatory adjustment, (3) limitation in materials procurement, (4) documentation and coordination limitation and (5) difficulty in green rating compliance.

The research identified 10 barriers of constructing green buildings in Oman. These barriers gravitated on 4 issues: knowledge and competency, green rating requirements, government involvement and materials procurement. It streamlined clusters of the potential research area for more effective green building action plans in the future. Two barriers are deemed uniquely applied to Oman, namely “lack of needed regulatory adjustment” and “absence of local rating tools”. This insight can serve as a valuable steppingstone to push more green buildings for the country.

The transition of Malaysia from a developing country to a developed country was considered in vision 2020, whereby an average construction contribution of 6.0% in growth domestic product (GDP) per annum was required. Despite this importance, still, the Malaysian construction industry has not reached the target yet. Understanding the weakness and strength of this industry can be an effective way to help the policymakers in selecting the best strategy in the promotion of the Malaysian construction industry in GDP growth. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the current issues and challenges faced by the contribution of the Malaysian construction industry in GDP growth.

To achieve this objective, all the latest statistical data presented by the Department of Statistic and Construction Industry Development Board in Malaysia until March 2018 being collected and interpreted. Furthermore, through the literature review, the most significant challenges encountered by the Malaysian construction industry identified, compared and presented.

The results highlight that the contribution of Malaysian construction into GDP is increasing with a gentle slope. Nonetheless, the Malaysian construction industry has a high impact on the employment rate. More investment in the construction sector is required to meet an average of 6% contribution in GDP. Also, to be able to seize new opportunities in the global construction market, more exerted efforts have to overcome the challenges faced by this industry.

This study offers practical implications to policy and decision makers in the Malaysian construction industry. Despite the constant growth of the Malaysian construction industry in recent years, there is a need for more investments and overcome to challenges to encounter an average of 6% contribution in GDP. This study provides an overview and insights to investors, stockholders and managers to formulate a long-term plan promoting the efficiency of the Malaysian construction industry.

This study through explaining, comparing and interpreting the real statistical data, through the tables, figures and graphs, simplified the understanding of the weakness and strength of the Malaysian construction industry.

The attention on sustainability issues within value management (VM) practices is uncertain due to the scarcity of information on this subject in the available literature. As a value enhancement technique, VM should incorporate sustainability issues as they would affect the quality of the outcome. By exploring VM as a means to uplift sustainability issues at the early construction stages, it shall shed light to its potential and current practices and thus stimulating wider attention to this field in the future.

This paper begins by presenting the underlying concept of integrating sustainability within VM. The potential of VM to uplift sustainability issues is highlighted and the relationships between these two are discussed. Field studies were conducted to investigate the existing practices of VM and its practitioners’ attitudes towards sustainability.

It is confirmed that sustainability consideration is already inherent in the VM workshops but the level of attention varies between workshops. There are gaps in current practices, indicating rooms for improvement. The identified barriers to integration are believed responsible for these gaps.

Any strategy to promote sustainability consideration in VM in the future must address the impediments to integration.

The attention on sustainability issues in VM remains an untapped area due to scarcity of information. Theoretically, the intrinsic capabilities and the positive relationships between these two heighten VM position as an effective means for sustainability improvement. However, in practices, sustainability attention requires improvement to bridge the gaps and overcome the existing barriers that impede current integration.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the enablers of creating a viable environment for a sustainable housing industry and investigate the barriers limiting this progress.

A literature review is carried out to explore the four‐angle enablers (technological, institutional, internal action and market influence) which are crucial to create an industry which is prone towards sustainable construction. Based on the interviews and surveys conducted on Malaysian developers, the findings point to various challenges for each enabler.

The paper highlighted that the government's lack of incentive programmes and the slow progress in revising related regulations are major hindrances for institutional enablers. For technological aspects, the problem lies in the cost of importing products because of the lack of locally‐produced green technology. The cost factor and lack of “urgency” are the core problems in encouraging internal action, while the low demand by the potential buyers affects market influence.

Actions towards transforming the conventional industry into a sustainable one require resolute actions and drive from various parties. This paper provides an insight into the key enablers for a sustainable housing industry and the current problems associated with each enabler. Although the research was carried out in Malaysia, the results may be applicable to other countries as well.

The paper aims to investigate the level of student satisfaction with campus student housing facilities (SHF) at Malaysian research universities (RUs) and the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty behaviour.

The student residential satisfaction (SRS) framework has been proposed to investigate residential satisfaction from the students' viewpoint. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents in three RUs. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics.

In general, students are satisfied with the provided SHF with the SRS index of 2.96 or 74 per cent satisfaction level and there is a significant relationship between overall satisfaction and loyalty behaviour. The results also confirmed that the proposed model is an adequate instrument to measure SRS.

The existence of quality SHF is likely to act as an effective medium to attract local and international students to enrol in Malaysian universities. Further actions should be geared towards achieving a higher score of SRS index.

This paper introduces a practical model of SRS to be applied to universities in other countries with similar climate and culture.

This study aims to develop an overall project success (OPS) model by investigating the mediation impact of value management (VM) implementation between VM critical success factors (CSFs) and OPS as well as the moderation impact of VM CSFs between VM implementation and OPS.

In total, 335 structured questionnaires were administered to relevant stakeholders in the study area. The research used a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to model the relationship among VM implementation, CSFs and OPS.

The results revealed that there is an indirect positive and significant correlation among the variables. The model prediction analysis also significantly impacted with 59.9% on OPS by setting VM implementation as a mediator variable and 61% by setting VM CSFs as a moderation variable.

This research work will serve as a guide or benchmark for decision-makers who want to use VM to improve the success of their building projects.

This study fills the knowledge gap by identifying and emphasizing the impact of VM CSFs and activities on OPS.