• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• autumn
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• pp.248-251
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• 2002

The cooperative relation between construction engineering firms and design subcontractors is essential to establish design collaboration system. So, this study is initiated with providing a strategic cooperation scheme between construction engineering firms and design subcontractors. A number of literatures related to the design process for engineering firms were reviewed in order to investigate the design collaboration system. A questionnaire survey was peformed to collect and analyze the expert opinion on the current design collaboration system for engineering firms. It is expected that the cooperation scheme can be utilized to improve the cooperative relation between construction engineering firms and design subcontractors.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.308-314
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• 2013

Although global construction spending has experienced slow growth due to consecutive economic crises, global contractors have consistently attempted to expand their overseas market share, leading to more intense competition among contractors in the international construction market. In this market environment, owners, clients and financial institutions require reasonable and systematic criteria to effectively assess the business capabilities of international construction firms. However, the existing evaluation methods for construction firms rarely consider overseas-focused business capabilities. To address this problem, this study proposes a quantitative approach to assessing the overseas business capabilities of international construction firms. The limitations of existing approaches are reviewed, and the capabilities required to perform overseas businesses are analyzed through expert interviews. Finally, 18 evaluation indices are suggested in four categories: technology resources, project management, experience and performance, and sustainability. The relative weight of each index is determined according to the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, and a preliminary investigation of 11 Korean construction firms is conducted. The proposed method is expected that it will provide the rational criteria for international owners, clients, and financial institutions for decision-making and for evaluating international contractors.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.2 no.2 s.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2001

Business boundaries of firms in the construction industry are strictly regulated in Korea. Under the current law, firms involved in construction processes are classified into five categories; general contractors, specialty contractors, architects' offices, engineering firms, and specialized in inspection. Among these types of firms, general contractors are prohibited to enter into specialty contractor's market and vice versa by the basic law in the construction industry. Also general contractors are not allowed to provide architectural services. The purpose of the law is to prohibit unlicensed companies from entering the construction market and to protect customers. However, the law causes critical problems e.g. low efficiency of production and rent creation. Therefore, we identify problems concerning business boundaries of firms in the construction industry and predict structural changes in the them when they are liberalized. So we surveyed general contractors and specialty contractors in Korea to estimate the effects of the liberalization on the construction industry. Most of contractors point to the enhancement of production efficiency as the motivation to integrate other construction process. If current regulations, which limit firms' decisions on business boundaries, are eliminated, firms will choose optimal business scopes taking into account types of contracts adopted by the Government for public works. Based on the cost/benifit analyses, they will decide whether to intergrate other production processes or not.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2007

Construction managers who are placed on the top of the construction production organization should exhibit its best knowledges concerning all aspects and control related members at every position properly. In case of CM firms in developed countries, they are equipped with a practical system of technology and management knowledge, and efficiently use the knowledge not only for novices but also experts. However, the domestic CM firms which are now at the lower level than those in developed country are not supported with the sufficient and systematic knowledge for CM tasks due to various reasons. Therefore, the objective of this study is to suggest the direction and strategy for the development of an experts-knowledge management system to enhance the construction productivity at the viewpoint of CM firms which conduct, manage and supervise various tasks of construction projects. Domestic CM firms would play a great role to enhance productivity and secure competitive advantage of project management as much as the firms in developed countries if experts-knowledge and information are supported by a computerized system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.584-587
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• 2004

After the IMF bailout, the Environment of Domestic Construction Industry had changed dramatically Therefore the IMF, Domestic Construction Firms are secured by the government regulations and some traditional Practices. However, due to the following reasons: a decrease in public works, an increase in uncertainty of market prediction, the change of bid system, and increase in construction firms, recently the competition among construction firms has became keen. Under the serious competition, In order that medium-size construction firms survive in the construction market, it is need to establish the strategy that could increase productivity. In order to establish the strategy, firstly, construction firms should set up an appraisal standard of construction firms. This paper propose a suitable appraisal standard that construction firm's strategy establish in environment change of the construction industry.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.6 no.2 s.24
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• pp.102-110
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• 2005

After the IMF bailout, the Environment of Domestic Construction Industry had changed dramatically. Before the IMF, Domestic Construction Firms are secured by the government regulations and some traditional practices. However, due to the following reasons: a decrease in public works, an increase in uncertainty of market prediction, the change of bid system, and increase in construction firms, recently the competition among construction firms has became keen. Under the serious competition, in order that medium-size construction firms survive in the construction market, it is need to establish the strategy that could increase productivity. In order to establish the strategy, firstly, construction firms should set up an appraisal standard of construction firms. Consequently, This study will introduce companies' objective appraisal in domestic construction market as well as basal data for setting-up strategy through adaptation industry structure analysis of business administration for strategic group analysis and a company which has lagged behind competitive power among the competitive companies can choose a target strategic group which should be pursued it in the future through being classified according to a group taken analogical strategy.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.640-647
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• 2013

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has become the new international benchmark for efficiency in design, construction and maintenance of buildings. It is the platform that brings about collaboration between project stakeholders and improvement of project outcomes. With all its potentials, not much of the impact of BIM technologies has been felt in the Nigerian construction industry. This research aimed at assessing the readiness of the Nigerian building design firms to adopt BIM technologies. The research was exploratory in nature. A field survey was conducted with the use of structured questionnaire, self administered to a sample of building design consultancy firms (architectural, structural, M&E, quantity surveying, and multi-disciplinary design firms) within Abuja and Kaduna. The questionnaire sought the perception of the responding firms on the factors affecting BIM adoption in the Nigerian construction industry, and their level of readiness to adopt BIM technologies in their practices based on the four categories of readiness-management, people, process and technology. 42.26% response rate was achieved and used for analysis. ANOVA and DUNCAN post-hoc tests were used to establish the differences between the responses of the groups of firms, while means and standard deviations were obtained to establish the important factors affecting BIM adoption in Nigeria. The survey revealed that all the groups of Nigerian design firms are appreciably ready for the adoption of BIM technologies in their practice, with slight variations in their respective levels of readiness. 'Lack of awareness of BIM technology among professionals' and clients and 'lack of knowledgeable and experienced partners' were identified as the most important barriers of BIM adoption in Nigeria; while the most significant drivers are 'availability of well trained professionals' and 'cooperation and commitment of professional bodies to the adoption'. Education and training of building design professionals and cooperation of all stakeholders in the design and construction supply chain were recommended as part of measures to ensure successful adoption of BIM in the Nigerian construction industry.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.623-630
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• 2019

As the Asian region becomes strategically important in the international construction market, competition among construction firms has been more intense. While existing literature on the Asian construction market have mainly focused on qualitative approaches to market entry strategies and risk assessment, quantitative research to explain the dynamic competitive structure of the market has been rarely conducted. To address this issue, this study analyzes the structure of contract performance in the Asian region based on the data from 3,996 projects awarded to Korean construction firms from 2009 to 2017. In addition, this study applies a mathematical model using both static (market concentration) and dynamic (market mobility and instability) analyses. Consequently, the static analysis indicates that market concentration led by top-four firms tends to be increased, and on the dynamic aspect, the market position of Korean construction firms is recently weakened and fluctuated in most of the Asian regions and the construction sectors. The methodology and result of this paper would be meaningful not only to understand the underlying structure of industry-level performance but also to provide a useful reference for establishing competitive strategies towards the Asian market.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.459-468
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• 2007

The u-City construction project has become a hot topic in the construction market because it seems economic value-added field for construction firms. However, construction firms don't willingly participate in the u-City construction market because environments of the future business for the u-City are very uncertain. Scenario planning is a very powerful method in managing this uncertain planning situation and is based on scenarios that help each enterprise appropriately adapt itself to its own business environments. Therefore it is based on the main principles of systems thinking and multiple futures. For the purpose of dealing with such uncertainties, this paper attempts to develop the possible market scenarios of the u-City construction market in S.Korea through a scenario planning approach. From this perspective, we considered various aspects of the u-City construction such as market demands, technology development, policy level and management environment. After considering the relevant issues, we identified the main trends and key uncertainties. Finally, we developed three coherent u-City construction market scenarios. Construction firms can use these scenarios as a basic reference for market analysis and business strategy. Therefore, this paper is able to enhance the participation of construction firms in the u-City construction market.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.599-607
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• 2022

Recently, there has been a steady decrease in the proportion of the construction sector among Korean engineering firms. Thus it is essential for Korean engineering firms in the construction sector, which lack experience in overseas ventures, to identify and improve their competitiveness for successful overseas expansion. Therefore, in this study, changes in Korean engineering firms' capabilities for the last decade were analyzed to promote entry into overseas road and water resource engineering markets. Competency factors that require urgent improvement were derived based on Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) as a tool for quantitative measurement. As a result, the factor that shows low performance compared to the importance is an overall understanding of the target country in the road and water resource areas. Knowledge of regulatory issues on design, the ability of time management software, and knowledge of the regulatory problems on construction safety are also insufficient. This study can be used as a research methodology to identify competitiveness that Korean engineering firms have to strengthen when they advance into overseas markets in roads, water resources, and other areas.