• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.875-880
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• 2005

This paper represents a partial outcome of a doctoral research undertaken at the University of Tokyo, Japan. The doctoral research looked on the phenomenology of innovation and its implications for the construction industry in Japan. This paper focuses on the perception of innovation by major Japanese construction clients and major Japanese construction firms. Among construction researchers innovation is a popular topic and no conference will miss covering the issue. After a period of very critical judgment on the ability of the construction sector to innovate and partially even frustration on the inflexibility of the sector, a much more positive attitude was taken. At present, most construction researchers would agree that the construction sector clearly is very innovative. That stands in contrast with how construction practitioners perceive their own sector. This paper presents the results of and empirical research in how construction clients and contractors in Japan perceive the issue of innovation. In fact the perceptions differ largely and give interesting insights on particularities of the Japanese construction sector and on the mismatch of clients and contractors perceptions.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.13-24
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• 2022

Construction projects are exposed to various types of risks, which tend to increase. The increasing risks call for contractors' more attentions to forecasting and dealing with these risks. One of the measures to deal with contractors' risks is to forecast or estimate risk cost and include it in the construction budget. Although various researches in relation to risk cost have been observed, little attention has been paid to general contractors' perceptions and current practices in estimating risk cost of construction budget. The objective of the study is to identify and discuss key characteristics and implications based on the survey and analysis of general contractors' perceptions and current practices in estimating risk cost of construction budget. The study shows that there is a gap between the perception and the practice of estimating risk cost, that is, high perception of the importance of risk cost and a relatively low level of practice. It suggests that historical cost data, guidelines and corporate-level standard procedures are required to improve the current practice in addition to sufficient time allocations for risk cost estimating. It discusses that there is a need for using sophisticated estimating techniques including bid data analytics despite a low level of the current adoption, and also proposes that research and development in the field of the sophisticated estimating techniques should be further implemented in order to increase their practicality.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.88-97
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to forecast future changes in the construction market following the reorganization of the construction production system by analyzing the possible market size in which general contractors and specialty contractors may participate in each other, and by carrying out a survey. The ratio of correlation between general construction and specialty construction industries was derived by analyzing the relevance of work area of general contractors and specialty contractors, the similarity of registration standards, and the market in which general contractors and specialty contractors may be able to mutually participate. In order to overcome the limitation of previous studies which analyze the changes in construction market based on the statistical data, and to analyze in more detail the impact of reorganization of construction production system from market participants' view, a survey targeting general contractors and specialty contractors for their willingness and method of participating in the mutual market was conducted. As a result of the survey, it was found that 52% of general contractors were willing to participate in the specialized construction market and 55.1% of specialty contractors were willing to participate in the general construction market. It was found that there was a high willingness to participate in the earthworks, reinforced concrete works, facility maintenance and management, water and sewage facility works, and interior works, and high competition is expected for projects with a scale of 500 million to less than 3 billion won. Through this study, it will be possible for general and specialty contractors to understand the changes in the construction market due to the reorganization of the construction industry production system, and to respond effectively to these changes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.104-113
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• 2012

This study aimed to find out the improvement plan through analyzing the perception of the expert group engaged in landscape architectural construction and to focus on analyzing the expert groups' experience on Landscape Construction Defects (LCD), defect liability, warranty period, and implementation of the defect liability. The results are as follows: 1. Regarding the experience on the LCD, landscape construction contractors were an awareness of the LCD issue at a serious level, while public-sector clients recognize moderately the LCD issue; and on the first priority in defect implementation, landscape construction contractors considered repair cost while public-sector clients value the identifying causes of defects. 2. In disagreement on the defect liability, landscape construction contractors attributed it to client's lack of responsibility for maintenance while public-sector clients ascribed it to the absence of dealing a criteria with LCD, and regarding the appropriate defect implementation, public-sector clients preferred the following objective by dealing the criteria with LCD while landscape construction contractors advocates by sharing the responsibilities for dealing with LCD based on the identified causes of construction defects. 3. Regarding the warranty period, the public-sector clients considered the 2-year warranty period as appropriate while landscape construction contractors considered it comparatively long, and concerning the commencement of defect warranty period, the public-sector clients viewed it as it should commence to cover the overall completion of the construction while landscape construction contractors perceived it to start on the completion of each work. 4. As for the improvement of the defect implementation system, public-sector clients considered it necessary to establish the objective dealing the criteria with LCD while landscape construction contractors viewed the legislation of maintenance duty. Also, with regard to the important value in establishing and dealing the criteria with LCD, public-sector clients pointed out the objective of the criteria for determining the defects per work type while landscape construction contractors suggested client (user)'s maintenance duty. Because of research, because the system in dealing with LCD is an absence of LCD management agency and dealing the criteria with LCD, it is needed to establish an LCD management agency and make the system in dealing with LCD.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.962-969
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• 2009

The market of building construction has been competitive in Hong Kong, perhaps as anywhere else in the world. The barrier to entry is low because there are relatively low requirements on the three factors of production - technology, manpower and finance. The prevailing building technology is traditional and labour-intensive. There is also not much need of capital because clients' periodic payments have been the main source of project finance. Further, capitalizing on trade sub-contracting, contractors have been able to keep their direct labour-force small and to transfer much of their business risk to the sub-contractors. Based on interviews to solicit the perception of a sample of building contractors on the particular issues of construction finance, we present the findings in this paper and discuss the various implications. We believe that the current practice of construction financing is both the cause and effect of the competition within, and the competitiveness of, the building construction sector in Hong Kong. We conclude that the building construction sector is "locked or stuck" in this "equilibrium" of traditional technology, reliance on clients' finance and exploitation of sub-contracting. In this "equilibrium" state, there is hardly any motivation for contractors to engage themselves in product or process innovation. Consequently, any talk of industry reform or innovation could only remain just that. We believe that this problem is not unique in Hong Kong. The building construction sector in many other developed and developing economies is posed with similar if not the same problems and constraints. We conclude that there has to be some "external forces" to bring this "equilibrium" state to a higher level "equilibrium" one where higher value-added building construction services are supplied and demanded. This is a state where building contractors possessing innovative technology, better financial and manpower resources could thrive to build better buildings with innovative building methods and processes.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.41-53
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• 1999

Fashion marketing channels experience conflicts inevitably because of constant interaction among fabric producers, apparel manufacturers, contractors, and retailers. However, it is rarely that attempts has been made to identify causes of conflicts in distribution channel of fashion industry. The purpose of this study was to explore causes of conflicts from the standpoint of a contractor. For this study, data were collected from the owner or the manager represented with a contractor in fashion maketing channels. By means of in-depth interviews with multiple informants, their statement was analyzed qualitatively. From analysis of the resulting data, the causes of conflict were associated with two broad sets, attitudinal and structural differences between apparel manufacturers and contractors. First, attitudinal sources of conflict were identified as perception of subordinated relationships between channel members, delayed announcement on order changes, difficulties in communication by using different terms, different expectations between channel members in controlling product quality, and lack of credit in inspecting products. Second, structural sources of conflict involved unilateral decision on wages for contracting, lengthy payment period derived from a bill of credit, deficient autonomy in selecting auxiliary suppliers, unreasonable issues on lead time, and unfair transaction in selecting a contractor or inspecting finished products. There are limitations on generalization due to the results based on interviews, but this study will be a useful exploratory step before designing a large scale survey.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.23-32
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• 2015

Recently, the Ministry of Labour, published clause 2 of Article 41 (Risk Assessment) of the Act "Industrial Safety and Health" dated 12 June 2013 in connection with continuous increase of accidents at construction sites in order to prevent accidents in industrial safety and health in new construction in accordance with the risk assessment on construction projects are realized after March 13, 2014. In this paper, positive method of calculating risk discussed by performing research the awareness of general contractors and sub-contractors with presenting risky situation is considered. The purpose will be a positive method of calculating risk and would be a sufficient base and give a positive direction in the development of new systems currently working in the construction and risk assessment which consider the characteristics of sufficient risk assessment system for future research.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.611-624
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• 2007

Every construction project expects a success. In order to attain success for every project involved, issues that are related to the success of a construction project must be identified. This paper identifies those key factors, which contribute to the success of construction projects. The main factors crucial to project success were identified from a literature review and through a questionnaire survey administered to local contractors. A follow-up interview was conducted to validate the first survey and to evaluate the perception of the local contractors. An Analytical Hierarchy Model was used to obtain the final Critical Success Factors. The identification of the critical factors related to the success of construction projects will contribute to the achievement of a particular objective which will accomplish the success of the project. Aspects that affect the success of the project are the project characteristic, contractual arrangement, parties involved in a construction project and finally, and the aspect of the project interactive processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2015.05a
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• pp.188-189
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• 2015

This study was conducted a survey for suggesting direction of improvement of on­site inspections in Korean construction industry. The survey is limited perspective of owners, contractors and construction managers (including supervisors) about existing 'construction field inspection manual' with field inspections (eg. central inspection, central quality safety unit inspection etc.): focusing on stakeholder's perception and actual state of inspections.

• Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

With the increased dependence on subcontracting in the construction industry, the operational relationship between main contractors and subcontractor plays an imperative role in successful project delivery. Consequently, improving this relationship increases the probability of project success and enhancing project performance. A wide range of research has confirmed that partnering improves the main contractor-subcontractor relationship. Though the positive impact of partnering on project performance is supported by a plethora of evidence, the guiding theory on practical partnering process steps is limited. The study aimed at improving subcontracting in the construction industry through a partnering process relevant to Zambia guided by factors obtained from industry expects. Questionnaire surveys and Semi-structured interview were adopted to investigate the perception of construction industry professionals and academics towards the main contractor-subcontractor relationship along with improvement factors. The findings showed that the relationship between main contractors and subcontractors on most projects in Zambia is unsatisfactory therefore justifying attention. Top factors that can enhance the main contractor-subcontractor relationship were identified. From the factors deduced and guidelines on partnering best practices, a project partnering model was developed.