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 development of a model of interdependence between investment in construction and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, based on a long-term trend, for the developing countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is presented. The study follows previous research undertaken by others who have...

Trust is described as an elusive concept, difficult to describe, understand, and therefore manage. The Trust in Construction project undertook five exploratory case studies in order to understand how trust is formed and the impact this has on project performance. The authors propose a model of...

• Trust is described as an elusive concept (Gambetta 1988), difficult to describe, understand and, therefore, manage. The Trust in Construction project undertook 6 exploratory case studies, of which 4 are presented in this paper, in order to understand how trust is formed, and the impact this...

Action learning is intended to enable a group of professionals (a SET) to tackle work problems, develop solutions and reflect upon the success and failure of their actions. As part of the UK construction industry's drive to improve learning and performance, four SETs of small and medium-sized...

Innovation-led performance improvement in the construction industry is significantly influenced by the innovation performance of small firms. There is a dearth of research investigating innovation from the perspective of the small construction firm. This paper contributes to this underdeveloped...

One reason for the interest in performance-based building is that it is commonly advocated as a powerful way of enhancing innovation performance by articulating building performance outcomes, and by offering relevant procurement actors the discretion to innovate to meet these performance...

Britain's passenger rail services were privatised in 1996/97 to reduce public subsidies and produce customer benefits through the private sector competing for medium or long-term franchises. Private sector franchisees were committed to investment in rolling stock, services, and infrastructure...

Small construction knowledge-intensive professional service firms (SCKIPSFs) are becoming increasingly important agents of innovation within the construction industry. The nature and process of innovation in SCKIPSFs, however, is generally considered through the constraining prism of research...

Relevant literature is synthesized to provide a holistic picture of our current knowledge of innovation in small, project-based firms, highlighting significant gaps in the broad areas of ‘focus and outcome’, ‘organizational capabilities’, ‘context’ and ‘process’. Research...