• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.550-557
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• 2009

The concepts of 'sustainable development', 'sustainable construction' and 'green building' have been elevated to priority levels in all types and phases of construction project development worldwide. Consultants and contractors are now required to seriously consider the impact of their operations on the natural environment and the society, and consequently adopt sustainable construction practices in the development process to minimize and mitigate the negative impacts of their activities. However, existing sustainability rating tools apply to the design, post-construction and operation phases of a building; no tool exists for the rating of the performance of the contractor or the project team at the construction phase. This study aimed to develop a model for evaluating the sustainability of construction operations, drawing on the global best practice standards on sustainability. Practical applications of the model were carried out through case studies to evaluate the performances of fifteen construction firms in New Zealand. The developed model and the outcomes of the case studies were presented, including potential areas of weaknesses, strengths, constraints to achievement or adoption of sustainable construction practices and areas for improvement in the operations of the firms. The successful application of the developed model in practice shows its usefulness and ease of application. It is therefore recommended for adoption as a simple but effective system for measuring and reporting on sustainability performance or sustainability of construction operations of firms in New Zealand and elsewhere.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.537-543
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• 2009

Noting the changes within the Singapore construction industry, fuelled by the government's 'green' initiatives in tandem with the prolonged effect of the 1997-2005 recession, this paper investigates Singapore contractors' attitudes towards environmental sustainability. Data were collected from 34 interviews with senior management of large and medium-sized general building contractors and the firms' archival records. The results show that the majority of the contractors embrace positive attitudes towards environmental sustainability. The respective contractors explicitly express their environmental drives by incorporating keywords such as 'quality', 'sustainability' and 'environmental and social benefits' into their firms' mission statements. The results also show that three environmental-related measures implemented by all contractors are: (i) stricter housekeeping procedures in construction sites; (ii) stricter wastage rates for construction materials; and (iii) greater focus on Just-In-Time delivery to minimise materials deterioration due to inappropriate site storage.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.124-132
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• 2019

Notwithstanding the crucial contribution of international construction industry in the national economy, previous studies on international construction contracts had mainly focused either on trend investigation or market share analysis at a point of time. Fundamentally, the international construction industry is fragmented due to its project-based nature, is heterogeneous that has to involve different firms from diverse fields, and tends to be dynamic according to macroeconomic conditions. Therefore, the combination of static and dynamic analyses is necessary to understand its underlying structure. This study analyzes the market structure of international construction contracts using the data of 9,173 projects awarded by Korean construction firms from 2000 to 2017. Industry-level performance data is analyzed both in static (market concentration) and dynamic (market mobility and instability) methods, and detailed methodology is also provided. Consequently, the static analysis result shows that the competition among Korean construction firms has been more intensified, and the dynamic analysis result indicates that market positions of Korean construction firms are unstable and vulnerable in most of the regions and the sectors. The combination of static and dynamic indices is found to be helpful to understand the underlying aspects of market structure and can be utilized as an effective strategic reference in the highly competitive market.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2015

Since the global financial crisis, the Korean domestic construction market has continuously experienced downturns, and the Korean domain construction firms'profitability has been persistently deteriorated. Domestic construction firms have rapidly advanced to overseas markets exclusively for the construction contract packages. However, the profitability for the construction contracts has been lower compared to engineering or project management contracts. One of the critical issues the Korean firms have faced was project management capability across all phases in project execution. Even though several project management capability assessment tools were introduced, most tools were applicable to a wide variety of industry sectors rather than construction industry. Project management capability assessment tool specifically applicable to domestic CM firms was developed through this research, in order to assess project and program management capabilities and improve the competitiveness in overseas market Also, the correlation between project, programs, and the CM infrastructure were identified. The CM firms were divided into two groups according to the size of the business, and both were evaluated at the project and the program level based for the 9 different criteria. The project management capability assessment tool developed for the CM firms can be used for self-assessment to distinguish the strengths and weaknesses of each company at the project and program level. In addition, the current status of each group can be identified by spotting improvement areas for the management capabilities.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.81-88
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• 2000

Planning and control for safety management executed by the head office is one of the most important parts for improving safety level of construction company. So this study is initiated with the purpose of suggesting an improvement strategy to perform effective and rational safety management at the head office. In order to investigate the current status of safety management of large construction firms in the Korean construction industry, the safety criteria related to the head office which are used in the Supermerit Certification System were chosen and examined by industry expert. The selected criteria are used for mail questionnaire. The survey was performed for 79 construction firms. Based on the 3-year average accident rate of 79 firms(1.20), the safety level of firms are classified. The safety improvement strategies for the below and the above are proposed respectively.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.151-164
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• 2009

Strategic alliances developed as formalized inter-organizational relationships are core vehicles to share information, resources and knowledge. The structural characteristics of strategic network constructed by strategic alliances have been important agenda in strategic management discipline. This paper has two folds in analysing the strategic network formulated by project level alliances in Korean construction industry. First, we investigate the strategic network using the tools and methods of social network analysis, such as centrality, cohesion, structural equivalence, and power law. Second, the performance of firms within networks are analysed longitudinally with panel data analysis. We have found that the strategic networks in this industry has scale-free characteristics, where the degree distribution fits the power law, and the vertically equivalent structure is clear. We also present that the performance of firms are continuously affected by the degree centrality of firms in this network for the last 10 years.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.3-11
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• 2019

This study is designed to examine the stock price of construction firms which are affected by the deregulation of new apartment sales price. As empirical methodology, it uses the traditional event study analysis to test the influence of the deregulation of new apartment sales price and the regression analysis to test which variables are related. The results of this study are summarized as follows : First, the cumulative abnormal return of stock is positive when government announced the deregulation of new apartment sales price. The cumulative abnormal return of stock for 21 trading day before -10 to +10 day is 25.51% which is significant different from zero at 1 percent level. This result suggests that the deregulation of new apartment sales price conveys good information to stock market that the firms performance will be good in the future. Second, in the regression analysis this study shows that the cumulative abnormal return of stock is related to firm's profit margin ratio.

• Computational Structural Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.57-67
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• 2010

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.721-722
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• 2015

The aim of this research is to provide a direction to benchmark advanced construction companies from Spain and France by deriving business strategies through SWOT analysis in order to strengthen overseas expansion and competitiveness of domestic construction companies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.487-490
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• 2007

Even though the domestic CM market has expanded in size continually since 2000, concerns of obstacles for vitalizing CM market have risen. A critical concern is clients' low recognition and motivation to make use of CM services. In this situation, it is important for CM firms to actively promote their marketing activities. The objective of this paper is to identify major characteristics of CM firms' marketing strategies and methods in relation to the management of CM service as a commodity.