Centuries of protection have impeded innovation in the textile industry. As these protections elapse, the industry must contend with increasing competition from abroad. This…
Abstract
Centuries of protection have impeded innovation in the textile industry. As these protections elapse, the industry must contend with increasing competition from abroad. This raises the question: will more R&D expenditure enhance competitiveness? To assess this, we measure firm profitability using Tobin's q, the ratio of the stock market valuation of the firm compared to the book value of the firm's assets. Q values are compared to other financial ratios, and then used to assess the impact of research and development (R&D) spending. A Mann‐Whitney rank test indicates firms that conduct R&D are not more profitable, as measured by q, than those that do not conduct R&D.
Jack Spellacy, David John Edwards, Chris J. Roberts, Susan Hayhow and Mark Shelbourn
This paper aims to investigate the value management workshop process and specifically identifies the roles and responsibilities of the quantity surveyor within this. Information…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the value management workshop process and specifically identifies the roles and responsibilities of the quantity surveyor within this. Information accrued is then used to develop a novel template value management workshop that provides a platform for educating future quantity surveying and other construction professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a mixed philosophical epistemological design that uses interpretivism with elements of postpositivism. Specifically, a cross-sectional study of extant literature informs the development of a structured questionnaire that is posed to focus group participants (consisting of experienced industrial practitioners) to secure qualitative feedback and validate the template.
Findings
Research findings reveal that the roles and responsibilities of the quantity surveyor in the value management workshop process have hitherto received scant academic attention. Additionally, literature has revealed that available information on workshop content is limited, leading to ineffective studies. There has also been a miscommunication among construction practitioners in relation to the quantity surveyor’s role in the workshop process. Following extensive research, a novel template has been created which identifies the content of each workshop session alongside the roles and responsibilities of the quantity surveyor (and other construction professionals) which can be used for educational purposes.
Originality/value
The literature revealed that scant academic and professional governing body(ies) attention has been paid to the education and training of future generations of quantity surveyors involved in value management. Specifically, there is limited applied case study evidence to investigate this phenomenon and, hence, the workshop curricular presents advance knowledge in this respect and provides a practical template solution.