A great body of knowledge exists on the theory of auctions and competitive bidding that is of potential relevance to construction contract tendering. Most of this, however, contains assumptions – such as perfect information – that are unlikely to be tenable in practice. The aim, therefore,...

This paper reports on a fully structured interview survey, using a multi-sectional questionnaire, of experienced construction contract price forecasters. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between the accuracy of ‘early-stage’ forecasts and experience (defined in...

This paper is concerned with predicting the probability of tendering the lowest bid in sealed bid auctions. Four of the leading models from the bidding literature are shown to be subsumed within a general model – differing only in their method of parameter estimation. These models are then...

This paper describes a structured methodology for modelling the information requirements of contracting firms' tender adjudication decisions. The method adopted is based on the techniques of information strategy planning and critical success factor analysis used in the development of executive...

Since Friedman, fundamental research in construction contract bidding and estimating has been concerned with the full problem definition, formulation and calibration. The general problem definition is now virtually complete in that bidding involves sequential and simultaneous decisions to be...

It is widely contended that since any one particular project contributes a relatively significant part of a construction firms turnover, the bidding decision on any one project will ultimately have a significant effect on the firms long term performance. It is also generally accepted that the...

Analysis of the difference between the lowest and second lowest bids, or bid-spread, in a ‘lowest wins’ auction is of possible value in strategic bidding; providing an indication of mistakes in bids; determining a justifiable amount of bid security; and a means of providing some insight into...

The construction industry is one of major strategic importance. Its level of productivity has a significant effect on national economic growth. The analysis of published census/biannual surveys of construction by the Department of Statistics of Malaysia shows that Malaysia managed to achieve...

Productivity is basic statistical information for many international comparisons and country performance assessments. This study estimates the construction labour productivity of 79 selected economies. The real (purchasing power parities converted) and nominal construction expenditure from the...

Clients need to be informed in advance of their likely future financial commitments and cost implications as the design evolves. This requires the estimation of building cost based on historic cost data that is updated by a forecasted Tender Price Index (TPI), with the reliability of the...