Persistent payment delays in the construction industry disproportionately affect subcontractors and threaten project sustainability. Project Trust Accounts (PTAs), mandated under Queensland's Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017, are a key statutory mechanism to improve payment security. PTAs aim to protect downstream payments by ring-fencing project funds; however, their implementation has raised concerns around administrative burden, cost inefficiencies, and limited alignment with industry practices. Despite increasing attention on subcontractor protection, little empirical research has examined PTAs from the perspective of main contractors responsible for administering them. This study addresses this gap by investigating PTA sustainability from the viewpoint of Queensland main contractors. Using a homogeneous purposive sampling approach, responsive narrative interviews were conducted with participants experienced in PTA implementation. The sample included representatives from a construction industry association and a subcontractor firm with main contractor PTA experience. Thematic analysis, guided by stakeholder and equity theories and evaluated using Green Project Management (GPM) criteria-effectiveness, fairness, and efficiency-reveals key operational, financial, and relational challenges. Findings highlight the need for more balanced policy design and stronger stakeholder engagement to enhance trust, reduce friction, and improve practical viability, contributing to more sustainable payment systems.
Horizontal collaboration in municipalities is increasingly promoted to foster innovation in circular construction through circular public procurement (CPP), yet the diffusion of such practices remains uneven. Drawing on a qualitative study of Swedish municipalities, this paper explores how inter-municipal collaboration addresses the challenges of implementing CPP. By conceptualizing CPP as a form of system innovation, the paper positions municipalities as key intermediaries and examines how inter-municipal collaboration supports learning, capacity building, and experimentation across projects and organizations. The findings show that municipalities face persistent legal, organizational, operational, cultural, and financial challenges. Yet, horizontal collaboration enables shared learning, collective sensemaking, and resource pooling needed to move beyond isolated pilot projects. An analysis of six dimensions and three functions of horizontal inter-municipal collaboration, namely shared knowledge creation, collective capacity building, and experimentation, contribute to the literature on CPP and circular construction transitions. This position is achieved by having conceptualized municipal collaboration as a form of connectivity, specifically, a dynamic process enabling coordinated learning and systemic innovation. From a practice perspective, inter-municipal collaboration functions as an institutional infrastructure for scaling circular practices across fragmented construction systems, while also revealing the uneven diffusion of such innovation across the municipalities.
Despite global initiatives promoting sustainability in road construction, the asphalt paving sector encounters challenges in adopting innovative solutions. To better understand which and how barriers hinder the implementation of sustainable innovation, this study perceives the sector as a connected system. To understand how barriers are embedded in a connected system and how this is perceived differently across actor groups, we apply Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) from a Multi-Actor Perspective (MaP). Using TISM, we develop a hierarchical structure of sustainable innovation barriers and cluster them, first for the entire sector, and then for different actor groups: government, market and third-sector. This approach allows for a more nuanced examination of how barriers are perceived by different actor groups in the innovation system. The analysis reveals that a lack of trust and information exchange are high-level barriers hindering the implementation of sustainable engineering solutions. Addressing linking barriers, such as a lack of knowledge, system monitoring, and access to testing locations, can simultaneously alleviate multiple hurdles because of the barriers' interconnectedness. By combining TISM with MaP, this study moves beyond traditional innovation analyses to reveal how barriers are embedded within a broader system and how actor-specific perceptions shape the implementation landscape. In doing so, it offers a more comprehensive understanding of systemic misalignments and identifies entry points for coordinated action toward sustainable innovation.
Quality failure costs remain a persistent challenge in construction, yet reported estimates vary substantially across studies, limiting benchmarking and evidence-based quality management. This study systematically reviews the sources of variation in reported construction quality failure costs. A total of 48 empirical studies published over 35 years were synthesised using thematic analysis, word frequency analysis, and Association Rule Learning, interpreted through systems theory, complexity theory, and evidence-based management. The review identifies four dimensions shaping reported cost variation: terminology and definitions, research objectives and scope, methodological approach, and contextual conditions. Reported figures range from narrowly defined defect and non-conformance costs to broader quality cost frameworks incorporating prevention, appraisal, hidden, and indirect costs. Seven dominant terms are identified, with rework emerging as the most frequently used construct. These terms are operationalised at different analytical levels and measurement boundaries, producing estimates that are structurally non-comparable even when expressed in similar units. Association Rule Learning shows a statistically significant association only between quality failure and cost of poor quality, while other term pairs exhibit weak or non-significant co-occurrence. The review also reveals a strong predominance of Quality-I approaches, with limited adoption of Quality-II perspectives. The study proposes a taxonomy for more transparent and context-sensitive measurement and benchmarking.
This article proposes an objective model for evaluating the performance of public works based on cost and time deviations. In light of recurring challenges related to budget overruns and delays, particularly in public contracts, the study identifies the absence of standardized assessment models as a significant barrier to accountability and efficiency. Drawing on international benchmarking systems and consolidated theoretical frameworks, the authors propose a classification methodology based on three indicators: Cost Seal, Time Seal, and Work Seal. These indicators convert raw data into scalar scores and conceptual seals (ranging from A to F), enabling cross-sectional analyses and supporting evidence-based governance. The model incorporates both direct and indirect costs, conducts time-based analysis regardless of suspensions or extensions, and introduces transparent metrics for comparative diagnostics. It is a methodological framework whose primary contribution lies in the structured development of a classification architecture for public works performance assessment. The model is conceptually validated using a simulated dataset to demonstrate its internal coherence and operational feasibility under controlled conditions. Empirical calibration using real-world datasets is identified as a subsequent research stage, contingent upon improvements in data standardization and availability. The proposal contributes to public governance by establishing a transparent, replicable and standardized evaluation structure capable of supporting systematic monitoring and comparative analysis.
The construction sector is transitioning from Construction 4.0 towards Construction 5.0, characterised by the convergence of digitalisation, artificial intelligence, sustainability, and human-centred professional practice. While industry transformation is accelerating, construction management education (CME) must realign with emerging digital and socio-technical competencies, remaining consistent with accreditation requirements. This study examines how CME has evolved in response to Construction 4.0 and explores how tertiary education can be repositioned to support Construction 5.0 readiness within an Australian context. A bibliometric analysis of CME literature was undertaken using the Web of Science database and Bibliometrix to identify research trends, thematic shifts, and gaps. A Construction Management Education 5.0 (CME-5.0) competency framework was developed through the synthesis of CME, Construction 4.0 literature and accreditation requirements from the Australian Institute of Building and the Chartered Institute of Building. The framework defines six integrated competency domains spanning digital and cyber-physical systems, data and AI-assisted decision-making, systems integration, sustainability and circular intelligence, digital governance and ethics, and adaptive leadership. Results indicate that while existing accreditation frameworks implicitly address many Construction 5.0 capabilities, they remain fragmented across traditional curricular silos. The CME-5.0 framework proposes an accreditation-aligned model that can inform curriculum renewal to support digitally enabled, sustainable, and human-centred construction practice.
The traditional theory on individual bankruptcy was based on consumption patterns of consumers. The limited empirical studies were not only inconclusive but also inapplicable to construction traders. The lack of studies on macroeconomic factors affecting construction insolvencies and the disparity between the trends of corporate and individual bankruptcies over the same period give rise to clear research gaps. This paper therefore aims to analyse macroeconomic factors affecting construction trader bankruptcy. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was developed to evaluate impacts of five macroeconomic factors on construction trader bankruptcies from Q3 1997 to Q1 2025 in the UK. Significant factors include construction output value, unemployment rate and number of traders. The structural break in the model from 2010 can be explained by the introduction of Debt Relief Orders and the quantitative easing policy, while another break after 2020 can be attributed to the government alleviation polices for pandemic. Overall, the model was found to be stable with high speed of adjustment.
Given its global impact, the construction industry is often the subject of increased innovation efforts. At the same time, its fragmented structure and multitude of actors are often referred to as reasons for the industry's conservatism. From this juxtaposition originated the concept of connectivity of innovation, a concept which aims to investigate how the actor network can itself be utilized to support innovation. Drawing on the framework of interactive dynamic capabilities, this paper explores how a new entrant strategizes for innovation in the construction industry. Based on 17 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2019 and 2024, the paper shows how a new entrant develops and leverages interactive capabilities in relation to established network actors and thereby contribute to innovation. Based on the framework the paper shows that the ability to both sense and be sensed, seize and be seized, and reconfigure and be reconfigured, is a prerequisite for innovation where networking capabilities are crucial. Entrants must account for existing networks while established firms must make space for both the entrants and their innovation. Contributing to the literature on connectivity of innovation, the paper highlights that the fragmented nature of construction can also generate new opportunities for innovation through relationships and interactions.
This study examines the impact of organizational AI adoption on project managers' job crafting behaviours and subsequent effects on work engagement and emotional exhaustion in construction organizations. Drawing on the Job Crafting framework and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, we operationalized AI-related structural and social job resources, challenging job demands, and reduction of hindering demands. Data were collected from 393 project managers and analysed using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that AI adoption significantly enhances all dimensions of job crafting, with the strongest effects on structural and challenging job resources. Social job resources and challenging demands positively influenced work engagement, whereas structural resources did not, and reductions in hindering demands unexpectedly decreased engagement while increasing exhaustion. These findings reveal the dual-edged nature of AI in construction project management, highlighting the importance of combining technological adoption with social support and skill development. The study contributes to theory by integrating AI into job crafting and JD-R frameworks and offers practical guidance for enhancing employee well-being in AI-enabled construction projects.
The transition to energy-efficient buildings, central to the European EPBD Directive, requires deep retrofitting to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, high construction costs and fragmentation of the supply chain limit its large-scale deployment. Therefore, it is essential to investigate whether the adoption of off-site technologies can reduce construction costs, increasing the efficiency of production processes and the financial viability of interventions. The study assesses the extent to which learning-by-doing mechanisms in off-site production processes have reduced the costs of deep retrofitting, improving efficiency and productivity. The research analyses 22 French social housing projects completed between 2018 and 2025, including single-family homes and multi-family buildings. Using logarithmic learning curves, the relationship between unit construction costs and cumulative production is quantified, considering the sample both in aggregate form and distinguishing between the two types of buildings. The results show a significant reduction in costs, with average learning rates of 7.7% for single-family homes, 12.4% for apartments and 7.2% for the aggregate sample. Although lower than typical values in other industrial sectors, the data confirm the impact of learning by doing on the economic viability of deep retrofitting. Overall, the estimated rates place the industrialisation process at an intermediate stage of technological maturity: sufficiently advanced to generate significant reductions, but still constrained by scale, supply chain fragmentation, and operational complexity.
The Local Jobs First (LJF) Act/Policy supports small and medium-sized (SME) manufacturers in Australia through mandatory local-content requirements in public procurement. This law was enacted when cheaper imported products displaced domestically manufactured goods, raising concerns about the sustainability of domestic manufacturing. While head contractors in the construction sector submit complying bids, they often substitute locally manufactured materials with cheaper foreign imports post-contract, hindering the full institutionalization of the policy. This paper examines the challenges of the LJF Policy and proposes improvements. To achieve this aim, two research questions are answered using the institutional work paradigm to understand actors' collective efforts at the field level: (1) What sub-forms of maintaining work are adopted by actors to institutionalize a contested SME-oriented procurement policy? (2) How can the full institutionalization of a contested SME-oriented procurement policy be achieved? A qualitative research strategy was employed to collect data from 25 semi-structured interviews and one focus group discussion. Despite the adoption of policing, enabling and embedding and routinizing work, a mandatory procurement policy could be circumvented by actors, reflecting the contested nature of a competitive issue field and a dilemma of institutionalization for actors, who seek to avoid full institutionalization costs. The Victorian Government is advised to resolve the dilemma of institutionalization by deploying more resources to implement the LJF Policy and to address skills shortages using a bottom-up strategy. It is recommended that contractors comply with the LJF policy to maintain resilient supply chains, and that trade unions and manufacturers continue to monitor compliance.
This article addresses how the relationship between connectivity and temporality influences construction innovation processes. It draws on a process study of a construction company in which central-level managers initiated the development of a new quality system and related project procedures based on digital technologies. The aim was to ensure consistency and improve overall construction performance across projects. The initiative revealed tensions between differing and conflicting temporalities (e.g., horizon, orientation, pace, and sequencing) of the central organization and projects, highlighting disconnectivity. Although the centrally led initiative failed, a project-led initiative that adopted a digital application for quality checks and on-site registration ultimately contributed to achieving the initial aim. Analysis of this process forms the basis for a model that conceptualizes how temporal differences reflect the state of connectivity in an organization, and how momentum for innovation emerges when the organization reaches a state of "requisite (dis)connectivity." The findings show that digital technologies can enhance connectivity by aligning temporalities and reducing temporal tensions between actants across organizational levels, thereby enabling innovation. This study contributes to the construction management literature by conceptualizing how connectivity and temporality shape one another and by outlining the implications of this relationship for construction innovation processes.
This paper examines how craft workers in the Danish construction industry make sense of piecework and how these perceptions shape their work. Using a critical realist, ethnographically grounded case study across three construction sites, and guided by a critical sensemaking perspective, the study shows that understandings of piecework are dynamically constructed through the interplay of discourses, rules, emotions, and identities. These factors influence individual agency and workers' approaches to work and project collaboration. Two dominant, contrasting discourses are identified: one framing piecework as a driver of efficiency, motivation, and solidarity, and another associating it with siloed thinking, reduced quality, and psychosocial strain. These discourses are reproduced in everyday interactions, shaping engagement in project collaboration on site. By integrating workers' lived experiences and identity negotiations, the study identifies four identities mediating responses to piecework: the quality-conscious, the collaborative, the productive piece-rate worker, and the strategic negotiator. The findings show that piece-rate pay can both enable and constrain project collaboration, depending on how workers make sense of and navigate it. The study contributes a nuanced, bottom-up perspective to the literature on collaborative working by highlighting the importance of workers' lived experiences and identity dynamics in project collaboration.
Modular integrated construction (MiC) is the volumetric prefabrication and on-site assembly approach to project delivery. The circular use of MiC modules in large scale projects is driving a change in the value system structure transition. One such case is the modular transitional hous-ing (MTH) programme in Hong Kong. In this study, we conducted a holistic analysis on the actors and value activities in the MTH projects based on a circular value system framework. The analysis mapped out the network of key actors' value activities. A bottleneck is identified in the conjunction between two sequential projects utilising the first and second lifecycle of the MiC modules. Learning-and-spillover is identified as the key cost driver, which leads to improvement in system capability and infrastructure, preparing systemic conditions for economic transition. We argue that the value of MiC is not created by the technology alone, but co-created with the combination of appropriate building type, geographical contexts, and user-specific social serv-ices. We suggest a platform development approach augmenting top-down design and bottom- up emergence, starting from connecting the internal platforms. We conceptualise circular inte-gration as a procurement strategy to mitigate the bottleneck in the MiC circular value chain.
The shift towards circular construction necessitates comprehensive, systemic alterations of deeply ingrained practices. This research seeks to gain a deeper understanding of how the underlying working rules that govern daily construction practices impact the ability to create circular solutions. It utilises the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to analyse two embedded case studies that encompass five (circular) design processes within Dutch engineering firms. We identified twenty-five working rules that underlie the design practices examined and how they affect circularity. From this, two key patterns of rules were identified: one in which working rules restrict circularity as a demand criterion, requiring action only when clients request it; and another in which circularity is treated as a peripheral consideration, viewed as a desirable but not necessary add-on. These patterns of rules demonstrate that circularity has yet to become the underlying design principle of design processes, requiring a fundamental change in the rules constituting construction practices.
Digital platforms are increasingly promoted as key enablers of circular construction, yet empirical insight remains limited into incumbent supply chain actors' needs and experiences with these platforms as emerging intermediaries. Addressing this gap, this study examines the perceptions of supply chain actors operating within the Dutch construction sector, drawing on 18 semi-structured interviews, a focus group workshop, and observations from two national circular digital transition programs. Building on existing research, digital platforms are conceptualized not merely as technical infrastructures, but as intermediaries embedded within existing supply chain practices and coordination arrangements, forming triadic relationships between supply and demand actors. Accordingly, the analysis is structured according to different intermediation needs across material flows, support flows, and systemic coordination. The findings indicate that digital platforms are widely expected to enhance supply-demand visibility and matchmaking, support compliance with evolving circularity-related KPIs, and facilitate cross-sector coordination. However, their adoption and perceived value vary substantially across actors, product types, and supply chain configurations, with persistent challenges in coordinating material logistics, accounting for environmental and social externalities and managing evolving platform power dynamics. The study contributes to construction management and circular supply chain research by advancing the concept of intermediaries for examining how digital platforms shape circular transitions. It further highlights the importance of more context-sensitive platform design and governance arrangements that respond to diverse intermediation needs and underlying platform dynamics in the transition to circular construction.
