The poor performance and inefficient manner in which the construction industry operates has been recognised through a variety of combined government and industry initiatives over the years. A major challenge towards improvement is recognised as lying with education and industry stakeholders...

Studies have been conducted to measure competitiveness in the construction industry. Such research has focused on all levels from the national picture to individual projects. While useful, the results are limited in that they present a snapshot picture at one point in time. Moreover, they do not...

Customer orientation is vital for success in today’s competitive environment. Jaworski and Kohli (1993) proposed a model to measure customer orientation comprising three components: 1) intelligence generation; 2) intelligence dissemination; and 3) organization-wide responsiveness. This model...

There is now a broad scientific consensus that the global climate is changing in ways that are likely to have a profound impact on human society and the natural environment over the coming decades. The challenge for Facilities Mangers is to ensure that business continuity plans acknowledge the...

Studies have been conducted to measure competitiveness in the construction industry. Such research has focused on all levels from the national picture to individual projects. While useful, the results are limited in that they present a snapshot picture at one point in time. Moreover, they do not...

The financial liberalisation theorem postulates that liberalising the financial sector is a route to increasing savings and investment, and thus the promotion of growth. Endogenous growth models suggest that financial sector development increases savings mobilisation, transfers savings into...

By 2003 the first Irish Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects had reached the operational stage. Media reports were emerging of significant differences in the effectiveness of these projects. This research set out to find a means by which effectiveness of PPPs could be increased and to...

The excessive level of construction business failures and their association with financial difficulties has placed financial management in the forefront of many business imperatives. This has highlighted the importance of cash flow forecasting and management that has given rise to the...

The construction and property industries have a poor reputation for innovation. Indeed, this reputation appears to be backed by official statistics which projects these industries as being devoid of innovative activity. However, the reputation is undeserved. Official statistics misrepresent the...

The aim of this paper is to critically assess the standard capillary suction time (CST) test and to propose a modified device (prototype) and a revised CST procedure. The empirical CST test (using a circular funnel) is well established as the leading method for the determination of sludge...