Search results

This paper aims to extend Lewis and Simpson’s (2010) work on the complexity of (in)visibility and explores what it means to women’s entrepreneurship in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This piece contributes to the special issue on COVID-19 and the impact on women entrepreneurs. Specifically, it applies an (in)visibility lens to argue that responses to COVID-19 in Canada negatively affect women entrepreneurs disproportionately and that while initiatives such as the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) are threatened, they can also serve as an agitator during this time to advocate for an inclusive recovery approach.

Despite progress through such government funded initiatives as the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES), which is targeting more than $2bn (Cdn) in investments towards women entrepreneurs, structural inequality and the (in)visibility of women’s entrepreneurship has been amplified during COVID-19. Through a particular understanding of the (in)visibility vortex notion (Lewis and Simpson, 2010), it is concluded the (in)visibility of women entrepreneurs as deeply embedded and that there is a continued need to advocate for a gender and diversity lens, to ensure inclusive recovery that benefits women and diverse entrepreneurs.

An (in)visibility lens brings an important addition to the literature on women’s entrepreneurship, as well as illuminates the important differences within this broad category, deepening the understanding of these trends and their impact during COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights how the complexities of intersectionality are critical to understand, and their recognition can help to drive a clear evidence base, as well as advocacy. The piece call researchers and practitioners alike to consider the question under COVID-19, will these conditions create a new vortex in this domain, or can the work of organizations and researchers position gender and intersectionality in women entrepreneurship as a disrupter for the future?

This study aims to examine how innovation can be accelerated within the New Zealand (NZ) building industry to improve the productivity and efficiency of the industry.

The study adopted a mixed philosophical approach combining interpretivism and post-positivism. Data for the study were obtained through a focus group of 50 practitioners that were selected using a stratified sampling procedure. All focus group data were audio-recorded, notes of the discussions were taken and then transcribed, de-identified and managed using NVivo software. Data analysis was undertaken using thematic analysis and inductive reasoning consistent with interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The study findings revealed that the industry could benefit from the adoption of new and emerging technologies to improve its performance, especially its productivity and efficiency. Key drivers for the adoption of innovative practices included the adaptation of “local best practices” from case studies that would consist of stories of successful innovations that could foster confidence in future innovation. It was also identified that Government and industry should nurture innovation through collaborative contracts, policies and regulations. Further, it was highlighted that a culture of innovation needed to be developed to help nurture competencies and capability within the industry workforce.

This study provides an in-depth examination of the need for innovation from the point of view of building industry practitioners. This study provides a useful starting-off point for further research and for the creation of policies that could help to support and accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry.

NZ’s building industry productivity and efficiency have been sub-optimal relative to other industries. But using evidence from the experiences and knowledge of industry practitioners, strategies can be developed to accelerate innovation within the NZ building industry that could help reverse industry performance. Further, the research findings can help inform government policies to develop support mechanisms that could encourage innovation in the industry in NZ. In addition, it is anticipated that the findings will provide a useful set of guidance for other countries that have similar market and physical constraints as those encountered by NZ.

There is a dearth of empirical studies on innovation in the NZ building industry which the current study contributes to. By sharing industry practitioners’ experiences and knowledge of innovation, the paper seeks to counteract more technocratic and technological optimist accounts of innovation within the building industry. Further, the paper provides insights into how the NZ building industry can transform its performance through innovation.

This paper examines how leading companies are building brands through comprehensive analysis and judicious improvement of the customer experience.

In the bid to build a world‐class brand, it's tempting for managers to invest everywhere that the brand touches customers. The “do everything’ approach rarely works well, however, because resources are spread too thinly to be cost‐effective. Our research shows that leading brand‐builders such as Citibank and Coach take a more selective, deliberate approach, adhering to several management principles that we have identified: they focus on the most important customers to their business enterprise; they concentrate investments on the customer touchpoints that will do most to increase brand equity and raise profitable demand; they set realistic goals for implementation and focus on changes that are easier to implement; they revisit their performance on a regular basis and make their brand program self‐sustaining and adaptive.

By using the right customer data and analytical tools, companies can identify and support the brand touchpoints with the highest ROI.

Of particular value to brand managers, marketing managers and financial strategists.

There is growing public interest in alternatives to intellectual property including, but not limited to, prizes and government grants. We collect various historical and contemporary examples of alternative incentives, and show when they are superior to intellectual property. We also give an explanation for why federally funded R&D has moved from an intramural activity to largely a grant process. Finally, we observe that much research is supported by a hybrid system of public and private sponsorship, and explain why this makes sense in some circumstances.

The purpose of this research is to investigate development competitions in England in order to uncover any shortcomings and point to improvements. A “development competition” is a sale by tender of publicly‐owned land with development potential where bidders also submit designs.

First, an interview survey of local authorities in north‐east England; second an interview survey with developers in north‐east England; third a questionnaire survey of local authority estates officers and fourth an interview survey with London based property consultants.

Despite their theoretical attractions, some competitions have problems. Conflict exists between professions and agencies. Development competitions encounter difficulties between developer appointment and construction which may lead to delay or the developer pulling out.

The data collected are biased in favour of the financial/property perspective. Further research is therefore still required.

Despite its practical significance, no literature exists on this specific topic. The results reveal delays, disputes and sub‐optimal use of resources. Further research is needed leading to new official guidance covering all aspects of this process.

Large numbers of competitions are held in the UK each year. The disposal of sites in this way has become more significant due to the concentration of activity on brown‐field land. In future, the need to assemble urban land using compulsory purchase powers is likely to make competitions more frequent. These results, which highlight best practice, will be of interest to all professional people involved.

Outsourcing has been used in Australia as part of the new public management agenda with the aim of increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. In the public health sector its use has been problematic and the purpose of this paper is to explore the largest Australian health contract at the time; investigating the reasons, the processes and the outcomes. Specifically, it investigates why the contract failed and the lessons to be learned from its subsequent awarding.

The paper uses a case study approach to investigate in depth the outsourcing decision.

Alongside savings in costs, changes to work practices and reduction in union power, it was found that the outsourcing contract produced problems with service quality, sharing of culture, relationships between contract and internal staff, and in managing the contract and staff; and reductions in trust and morale of both internal and contract staff. Inadequate contract specifications and subsequent under pricing was the cause of contract termination, poor quality, and difficulties in contract management.

The paper provides important lessons for decision makers when outsourcing in public health.

The paper investigates the largest outsourcing contract in public health in Australia in the 1990s. It investigates the failure of the initial contract and its subsequent awarding to another vendor. The case study approach provides an in‐depth analysis of this decision.

Improving the resilience of the construction sector helps countries recover quicker from crises and can assist with improving community resilience and recovery. This study aims to explore ways in which the construction sector might improve its resilience.

This paper examined past disasters and the role construction plays to understand what and how better construction resilience can be built, and the impact this will have on recovery and reconstruction.

The findings showed that after a crisis, the construction sector is called upon to manage building and infrastructure recovery and reconstruction. Construction organisations are needed by the community, as they provide physical resources, people, materials, logistics, management and technical expertise and rebuilding. To ensure that recovery and reconstruction programs are successfully implemented, it is necessary for the construction sector to be resilient. To achieve improved resilience in the construction industry, disaster resilience management needs to become mainstreamed into construction processes.

Although larger organisations have some preparation to respond to crises, including having emergency or disaster plans, smaller companies struggle to achieve a reasonable level of resilience. It appears that senior management and key people in construction organisations are familiar with the procedures but that the majority of staff in organisations lack knowledge and skills.

Understanding the role the construction sector plays in disasters and providing directions for improving construction sector resilience will ultimately improve recovery and reconstruction outcomes.

This paper discusses how communities rely on services provided by construction organisations to enable them to recover from emergencies and crises. Pre-disaster construction company resilience impacts on the ability of construction companies to function post-disaster.

This paper focuses on a number of cases and shows where and how the construction sector has worked in disasters and provides a new analysis of the role the industry plays, and the various disaster stages where the industry has maximum impact.

Many applications of Building Information modelling (BIM) are already integrated into project management processes. However, the construction industry is suffering from poor decision-making, especially during procurement where fundamental decisions are made. To make the best decisions at earlier project stages, such as design, large amount of information needs to be processed and classified. Therefore, this study seeks to create a Decision Support System (DSS) for construction procurement through the application of existing informatics infrastructure and BIM applications.

Literature review expert interviews and case studies with complex procurement considerations were used to identify and validate attributes and criterions for procurement decision-making. Accordingly, Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) methodology was used and mathematical models were driven as the foundation for a DSS.

Five major criterions of time, cost, relationship quality, sustainability and quality of work performed was identified for complex construction procurement decision-making. Accordingly, a DSS structure and mathematical model was proposed. Based on this a model architecture was developed for the integration of the DSS into Autodesk Revit as a BIM platform, and assist in pre-contract decision-making.

The results can be used in pre-contract selection processes via currently used BIM applications. The model architecture can integrate DSS outputs to nD models, cloud systems and potentially virtual reality facilities to facilitate better construction operations and smarter more automated processes.

This study formulates and captures complex and unstructured information on construction procurement into a practical DSS model. The study provides a link to integrate solutions with already available platforms and technologies. The study also introduces the concept of designing for procurement; which can be expanded to other challenging decisions during construction.

Although public‐private partnerships (PPPs) have been used internationally, the New Zealand Government has only recently started to consider using PPPs to deliver public assets and services. However, there is uncertainty about whether the New Zealand Government should actively enter into PPP arrangements. The government lacks a robust decision‐making tool for assisting with choosing alternative procurement methods. PPPs are seen as risky, but innovative procurement options, with obstacles to overcome before they use can become common place. Nervousness about the use of PPPs requires the New Zealand Government to have a thorough understanding of the drivers and obstacles, and also to understand the applicability of international PPP experience to New Zealand. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers and obstacles for adopting PPPs in New Zealand and provide details on how these obstacles might be overcome by using innovative country‐specific solutions.

Semi‐structured interviews with senior industry players and round table discussions are the research methods used.

The research found that the drivers for PPP adoption include acceleration of infrastructure provision, better risk allocation, whole of life cost savings, improved quality of services, access additional revenue sources, benefits for local economic and social development, and improved project scrutiny. The results show that the drivers appear to be more than securing private financing for public infrastructure. Greater efficiency in the use of resources has been emphasised by New Zealand practitioners. With regard to the apparent obstacles, research showed these to be: political, social and legal risks, unfavourable economic and commercial conditions, high transaction costs and lengthy lead time, problems related to the public sector and problems with the private sector. Possible solutions to these obstacles are derived from national and international research and assessed for their applicability to New Zealand.

The paper presents discussion on the concerns expressed by the New Zealand industry about PPPs at strategic, institutional, and industry level. The identified obstacles and suggested solutions provide some initial guidance on how to proceed with PPP implementation in New Zealand. More research needs to be done to understand the various key facets identified here (e.g. tendering process, contractual arrangement, and risk allocation) and their wider effects. The research is based on interviews with a limited number of senior industry respondents, along with the general results of three industry round table discussions. Therefore, follow‐on interviews need to be conducted with private sector partners, sponsors and funding bodies, in order to gain a wider view of the issues under investigation.

The findings of the research are of assistance to decision makers in both the public and private sectors in New Zealand. By understanding the drivers and obstacles for PPP adoption, and posing solutions to these obstacles, the New Zealand construction industry might be in a better position to adopt PPP schemes.