Search results

Construction frameworks are recognised by the UK Government as an integrated procurement path to deliver efficiency, collaboration and sustainability. This research paper aims to develop a performance-driving model for framework procurement to align with the government construction policy objectives.

A quantitative hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the causal relationships between project outcomes and performance drivers. A successive qualitative multiple-case study involving eight typical construction framework projects was examined to further explain casual relationships.

Conclusive results from the quantitative and qualitative analyses validated the performance-driving model, generalising a framework procurement principle that project outcomes of time, cost, quality, sustainability and closer relationships are significantly driven by supplier's task and contextual performance drivers, and client's organisational drivers.

The investigation followed two major public-sector organisations in the UK: infrastructure offices of local authorities and estate offices of universities. Further research should be extended to other public-sector situations to enhance the model further.

Using this model, framework managers can drive project outcomes by applying task and contextual performance drivers in order to select the best suppliers at the procurement phase, and by adopting the client's organisational factors at both procurement and construction monitoring phases.

The empirical evidence supports the use of frameworks by public sector policymakers as a key strategy to develop the performance drivers further and improve efficiency and quality outcomes.

The results will be of value to support the policy of public-sector works organisations contemplating using framework procurement for executing continuing construction activities.

Construction framework agreements are identified by the UK Government’s Construction Strategy 2025 as an integrated procurement path to improve construction industry efficiency. However, criticisms from the industry have arisen from the lack of transparency and incorrect application of such frameworks. This paper aims to examine the client and supplier relationships within a framework agreement to discover what behaviour change drivers should be applied in the framework process to achieve the desired project outcomes.

A triangulation approach was adopted. An initial literature review on organisational behaviour and job performance theories was conducted followed by a qualitative expert review survey of client construction managers to confirm the project outcomes desired by public-sector clients and the associated behaviour change drivers. This was followed by a qualitative multiple-case study investigation of eight typical framework projects to form a commonality of views to explain the impact of behaviour change drivers on project outcomes.

Results from both qualitative studies demonstrated that improvements in project outcomes of time, cost, quality, sustainability and closer relationships can be driven by two sets of behaviour drivers: client organisational behaviour change drivers (setting up incentive and risk-sharing procurement approach, effective communication through development of stronger relationships and performance monitoring using contract key performance indicators) and supplier contextual behaviour change drivers (motivating conscientious behaviour and attitude towards self-improvement and innovations, supporting shared culture of providing services aligning with the client needs, promoting learning and development amongst all suppliers and most importantly providing trust and collaboration to the client).

The investigation was based on an expert review with eight multiple-case studies conducted within the geographical area of England. Further research should be conducted nationwide so that the findings can become more robust and benefit the entire public sector.

It is suggested that framework managers should apply the supplier contextual performance drivers as selection criteria in the procurement process, whilst the client organisational performance drivers should be applied in the whole procurement and construction monitoring process to drive project outcomes aligned with the government construction policy objectives.

This research demonstrates that the project behaviour of clients and suppliers can be shifted within the construction framework environment to yield the desired project outcomes. This can be achieved by applying the client organisational behaviour drivers and the supplier contextual behaviour change drivers in tandem to optimise the framework process.

Referring to “behavioural finance” and “normative model” theories, this study explores the relative significance of behavioural heuristic biases in the investment decisions of real estate investment trusts (REITs) when compared with the conventional normative decision factors, with an ultimate aim to identify the significant behavioural factors that should be avoided to ensure rational asset acquisitions and market efficiency.

A triangulation approach was adopted. Qualitative multiple case studies were conducted, with four cases selected from Australian and New Zealand REITs across the industry, to identify what normative and behavioural finance factors are involved in investment decisions. This formed the basis for the subsequent expert review survey to explore how significant the behavioural factors were manifested in the judgement when compared with the normative factors.

Three out of four theoretical behavioural factors manifested themselves in the investment decisions: investor sentiment, anchoring factors and overconfidence. The overall impact of these three behavioural factors was that they were as significant as normative factors in investment decisions. The heuristic availability of information was found to have no significant effect on experienced REIT fund managers.

The findings were based on four multiple cases and an expert review survey of six frontline fund managers, which form a baseline upon which further research can be conducted to widen the scope of research to cover all REITs in Australasia so that the results can become more robust to benefit the entire market in the region.

As behavioural factors are significant in the decision-making process, REIT fund managers should raise awareness to avoid the significant behavioural factors identified, in particular investor sentiment, which was found to be the most significant one.

This study confirms the relative significance of behavioural factors in property investment decisions within the context of Australasian REITs and alerts fund managers to the ways they should follow to ensure rational investments and market efficiency. It also extends the scale of existing studies to cover not only Australia but also New Zealand for the benefit of the entire Australasian market.

The UK Government construction strategy has a clear objective to maximise potential and value for construction and infrastructure projects. The purpose of this paper was to develop a performance outcome framework for the public-sector university client to identify the criteria for value against which construction consultants’ performance will be appraised for selection and monitoring purposes in outsourcing.

Multiple-case study method was used to examine the performance requirements of construction consultants, using three state universities having similar contexts in terms of organisation objectives and requirements on projects funded by the government.

Within the public-sector university environment, five performance outcomes are identified: time, cost, quality, innovations and working relationship with the client. These areas form a conceptual framework for measuring the performance of construction consultants.

The performance outcome framework developed should be regarded as “conceptual”. University clients may have different organisation objectives and hence requirements for performance outcomes, which may further vary according to specific project situations. The framework should be adapted accordingly.

University clients and their professional advisors should specify the performance requirements under those five areas in tender documents for selection purposes and subsequently use them as key performance indicators to monitoring the consultant performance. Construction consultants should address these requirements in the tender proposals to add value to the project.

There is a need to investigate what performance outcomes are required by the public-sector construction client. Based on the results of this research, frameworks and guidelines can be further developed for use by other public sectors, thus benefitting the wider public sector as a whole.

Improving valuation accuracy, especially for sale and acquisition purposes, remains one of the key targets of the global real estate research agenda. Among other recommendations, it has been argued that the use of technology-based advanced valuation methods can help to narrow the gap between asset valuations and actual sale prices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the property valuation methods being adopted by Australian valuers and the factors influencing their level of awareness and adoption of the methods.

An online questionnaire survey was conducted to elicit information from valuers practising in Australia. They were asked to indicate their level of awareness and adoption of the different property valuation methods. Their response was analysed using frequency distribution, χ² test and mean score ranking.

The results show that the traditional methods of valuation, namely, comparative, investment and residual, are the most adopted methods by the Australian valuers, while advanced valuation methods are seldom applied in practice. The results confirm that professional bodies, sector of practice and educational institutions are the three most important drivers of awareness and adoption of the advanced valuation methods.

There is a need for all the property valuation stakeholders to synergise and transform the property valuation practice in a bid to promote the awareness and adoption of advanced valuation methods, (e.g. hedonic pricing model, artificial neural network, expert system, fuzzy logic system, etc.) among valuers. These are all technology-based methods to improve the efficiency in the prediction process, and the valuer still needs to input reliable transaction data into the systems.

This study provides a fresh and most recent insight into the current property valuation methods adopted in practice by valuers practising in Australia. It identifies that the advanced valuation methods could supplement the traditional valuation methods to achieve good practice standard for improving the professional valuation practice in Australia so that the valuation profession can meet the industry’s expectations.

This research examines what key performance indicators (KPIs) and drivers should be applied at the post-contract phase of construction development to monitor and drive project outcomes in sustainable design and construction. It supplements the previous research which focuses on pre-contract sustainable procurement of competent professionals. Consequently, optimal sustainability can be achieved for the overall sustainable development process.

A review of empirical work was conducted to consolidate the holistic aspects of sustainability that should be considered for design and construction and their project outcome KPI measures. Based on a country-wide questionnaire survey of the university estate sector in the UK, a quantitative hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify the performance drivers for those KPIs.

The empirical work review demonstrates that holistic sustainability for development can be measured by project outcome KPIs: economic sustainability by cost KPIs; functional, social and environmental sustainability by quality KPIs. The quantitative hierarchical regression analysis confirmed that these four aspects of sustainability could be significantly driven by task performance and contextual performance drivers, as supported by the job performance theory.

The investigation was undertaken within the context of university estates forming a unique public sector in the UK. The findings form a baseline upon which further research can be conducted in other organisations in the wider public and private sectors. Ultimately, holistic sustainability can be fully driven by construction professionals to achieve government and corporate construction strategy for the benefits of sustainable built environment.

The findings inform project managers and construction professionals that they should apply clear, measurable cost and quality KPIs and focus on significant performance drivers in tandem to drive holistic sustainability for design and construction. Project staff should have a high commitment, technical expertise and experience, execute the project with proper design and management methods and provide a high level of trust and collaboration to the client. Clients, designers and contractors are key stakeholders in the development process so they should be consulted for forming the contract KPIs to monitor the sustainable project outcomes.

The generalised results confirm that task and contextual performance drivers can be applied as project management tools for managing the professional team members to achieve sustainability deliverables in terms of KPIs. Such findings will enhance the government or corporate construction strategy for managing and achieving holistic sustainability for construction developments.

This research identifies post-contract performance monitoring measures (cost and quality KPIs as well as task and contextual performance drivers) that can be adopted for driving sustainable design and construction for sustainable development.

Outsourcing architectural and engineering services is a trend for public-sector construction projects. This study aims to examine what tender selection criteria should be considered when assessing the performance outcomes of consultants in relation to sustainable design, construction and management of buildings within the context of property and facilities management of existing building portfolios.

Combined qualitative-quantitative methods are adopted to examine the causal relationship between sustainable performance outcomes and influencing factors, using primary data collected from the estate offices of the UK universities, which form a unique public sector. The performance factors identified form the basis of selection criteria.

The qualitative multiple-case interviews identify economic, environmental, social and functional sustainability measures as the attributes of performance outcome. The quantitative hierarchical regression analysis generalises that sustainable performance outcomes can be significantly influenced by task and contextual performance factors.

The scope of the study is limited to university estates. Further research should be conducted on other property and facilities management and construction-related organisations so that the sustainable procurement approach developed by this research can become more robust and applicable to the wider public sector.

At the tender stage, estate managers should adopt a sustainable procurement approach for selection of construction consultants: focussing on the significant task performance (project staff and execution approach) and contextual performance (collaborative consultant frameworks) influencing factors to optimise the project sustainability outcomes in relation to economic, environmental, social and functional values.

The sustainable procurement approach developed by this research benefits property and facilities management, as well as construction disciplines within the wider public sector, thus contributing to the government construction policy on promoting sustainability to the built environment.

Public-sector construction clients in the UK and Australia have a clear objective to maximise potential and value for construction and infrastructure projects. Outcome-based performance predictive models, which link influencing factors to individual performance outcomes, were developed for the public-sector property management clients. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Combined qualitative-quantitative methods were used to examine the causal relationships between performance outcomes and input economic and job performance factors. Hypotheses on individual relationships generated by a literature review were refined using the findings from a qualitative multiple-case study of three universities, and then tested by a quantitative hierarchical regression analysis using data from 60 consultancies collected from a questionnaire survey sent to the estate management offices of the universities, which form a unique public sector. Each performance project outcome was regressed against influencing factors. Performance predictive models were established in the form of regression equations.

Five performance outcomes are identified: time, cost, quality, innovations and working relationship with the client. These can be significantly predicted by regression models, based on performance influencing factors of project staff, competence of firm, execution approach, size of firm, consultant framework and competition level.

The performance predictive models developed should be regarded as “conceptual”. Public-sector clients may have different organisation objectives and hence different requirements for performance outcomes, which may further vary according to specific project situations. The models should be adapted to suit individual needs. Adjustments can be made by using the combined qualitative-quantitative methods adopted in this research, thus creating customised models for property management and construction-related clients.

The client’s professional team should focus on the significant performance influencing factors and take advantage of the performance predictive models to select quality consultants. Construction consultants should address the factors in the tender proposals in order to add value to the project and benefit the client.

The existing input-based assessment approach applied at the tender stage cannot guarantee the strategic project objectives to be achieved. The performance predictive models are adaptable for property management and construction disciplines within the wider public sector, thus contributing to achievement of the government construction policy.

The smart sustainable cities (SSC) concept has a wide acknowledgement amongst governments and societies that deal with emerging technology and help in developing better urban communities. However, the fact that citizens' participation (CP) is not adherent to the current policies and governance often boosts their aspirations of decision-making to become smart cities. This paper aims to identify SSC variables and, more importantly, rank, categorise and discuss the factors towards implementing SSC by engaging, empowering and enabling citizens to participate in the urban development of SSC.

A comprehensive literature review identified 38 factors in the CP process. Those factors were used to design an online questionnaire administered to the respondents. A total of 164 valid responses were collected. A two-stage statistical analysis was adopted. First, the Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank and prioritise the importance of the factors that affect the current policies and agenda. Second, factor analysis was utilised to categorise and group those factors.

This study founds four significant factors that help in implanting SSC: “knowledge of smart sustainable cities”, “awareness of smart sustainable cities”, “willingness of the citizens to participate” and “opinion on the current agenda of the government's role”.

This study has a few limitations which can be considered in future studies. First, the response rate of the participant is relatively low (163), so sampling a larger segment will support the broader perception of the citizens.

The outcome of this paper underlines the need for the successful implementation of smart cities by adopting CP in the process of impacting policies and governance. Particularly, it identifies factors that help cities and policymakers in engaging CP in developing new policies and revising existing policies for promoting SSC.

There is a need to investigate the most critical factors that influence CP for implementing SSC. These factors have not been adequately examined in extant literature.

Higher education is now one of the biggest export sectors in the Australian economy. Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) has emerged as a new asset class in Australia, as demanded by international and domestic students. As of 25 October 2020, there were still approximately 400,000 onshore international students and 135,000 offshore students despite the COVID pandemic. Various universities remain optimistic about their returns to Australia. Active PBSA investors remain focussed on the longer-term fundamentals and return of the Australian student market. This study aims to examine the investment potential of the PBSA sector in Sydney.

The triangulation method was used to confirm whether the literature findings on the high potential of PBSA investment apply to the context of the Sydney market. Qualitative expert interviews with two directors of major international real estate consulting firms, one private family trust investor and one director of a development company, were conducted in tandem with a qualitative multiple-case study of three major PBSAs via interviews with their building managers. These selected participants broadly covered the stakeholder settings across the industry.

A positive and solid trend of demand and rental growth was confirmed by the expert interviews and the performance of PBSA cases in Sydney, as supported by the growing number of international students in the longer term. To enhance the rental growth, and hence total returns, self-contained studio-type accommodation with quality facilities and social support should be provided, and operators should consistently track the needs of students and provide them with a better living experience.

PBSA is a new asset class and there have been limited supply and sale transactions to enable detailed examination of the capital growth, so this research has focussed on rental growth. When the PBSA market becomes more mature, further research should be conducted to analyse the strength of this emerging investment’s capital growth and total returns.

In the longer term, PBSA is a low-risk property investment with potentially high returns in Sydney. Institutional investors and real estate consultants can make informed decisions to build up the property portfolio. PBSA is capital-intensive and has low liquidity, so this type of investment is particularly suitable for institutional investors.

Universities should provide more suitable PBSA accommodations by themselves or partnerships with private developers. Planning authorities should include more PBSA residential uses in the land zoning plan. This is to provide more affordable accommodations to meet the demand of cost-sensitive students.

This research confirms PBSA is a low-risk investment with potentially high returns within the context of the Sydney market. The findings will benefit the major stakeholders of PBSA in their investment decisions, including investors, developers and universities.