Journals Published by Vilnius Tech
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Empirical study toward corporate legal compliance and anti-corruption for top construction engineering consulting firms
Get PDFEnhancing legal compliance towards corporate anti-corruption has become a tendency to assure corporate operation sustainable. Corruption that jeopardizes construction supervision, project management, operation maintenance remains a governance challenge in public construction and procurement. The research purpose is to explore the impact factors for anti-corruption legal compliance towards top 5 engineering consulting companies in the Taiwan construction industry. A comprehensive literature review brings 8 hypotheses based on the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) involving 28 stems for a 5-scale Likert questionnaire. The pilot survey with 22 effective returns demonstrates the validation for the questionnaire. The comprehensive survey collects 314 valid returns from top engineering consulting firms and proves that 5 out of 8 hypotheses stand. The findings conclude the legal compliance framework and top 5 impact factors: commitment, ethical management policy, organization and responsibility, prevention programs, and legal compliance policy. The contributions lie on (1) the identification and ranking for the impact factors, and (2) establishment of legal compliance framework toward corporate legal compliance and anti-corruption for top engineering consulting firms in the Taiwan construction industry. The legal compliance framework is correspondingly built to present how engineering consulting companies carry out anti-corruption legal compliance to assure corporate operation sustainable
A value-based network analysis for stakeholder engagement through prefabricated construction life cycle: evidence from China
Get PDFOver the past decade, prefabricated construction has increasingly gained popularity in addressing environmental concerns while meeting the high construction demand, particularly in developing countries. Accordingly, the concept of stakeholder engagement increasingly garnered attention as it is highly relevant for understanding and explaining the relationships among various stakeholders, like contractors, suppliers, and producers, especially within the fragmented context of prefabrication. To further the field, this study aims to provide a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analysis for stakeholder engagement in the realm of prefabricated construction via a value-based network. This value-based network analysis is utilized to model multiple relationships between stakeholders as value exchanges, thus enabling to engage them though management with a focus. Specifically, A total of 110 values were identified and analyzed among 12 stakeholders throughout the whole lifecycle via an extensive literature review, interviews, and questionnaires directed at prefabrication practitioners in China. This data collection process garnered 194 valid responses with a 64.7% response rate. The findings show that enhancing stakeholder engagement requires improvements in both the abilities and experiences of developers, and in the collaborative relationships among key stakeholders. These improvements can be achieved by prioritizing the engagement of prefabrication consultants and encouraging the government to issue policies that support developers, producers, and consultants in fostering collaboration. This in-depth network analysis offers practical insights for decision-makers in the management of core stakeholders and value-based relationships, thereby improving stakeholder engagement. Additionally, it expands the current body of knowledge on stakeholder engagement by incorporating the value-based network analysis into the exploration of its stakeholders and relationships
Exploring the driving mechanism and path of BIM for green buildings
Get PDFDespite green building and BIM technology being hot spots in the construction industry, most research remains at the technical level. Leading to exploring the fundamental driving reason and mechanism of BIM for green buildings is still lacking. This paper explored BIM’s impact mechanism and driving path on green buildings from the management’s perspective to fill this gap. Based on a literature review, 18 expert interviews, and three case studies of green buildings, the influence mechanism was analysed via a qualitative method (ISM). Then, the importance of driving factors was evaluated via quantitative analysis (ANP). Specifically, this study probed the driving path by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis (ISM-ANP). The research findings show that the driving force of BIM for green buildings comes from the fundamental factor layer and is transferred to the intermediate and direct factors layer. The critical driving path of BIM for green building is to promote the visualization of building information, collaborative management, and expand real estate investment through the guidance of policies and standards. Based on research results, this paper puts forward five suggestions: 1) Improving the policy and standard system; 2) Striving to research native software; 3) Adopting an informatization project management mode; 4) Accelerating the construction and improvement of the green building industry chain; 5) Promoting government enterprise cooperation. These results may benefit not only the coupling and coordination of the two but also the construction industry’s green transformation and high-quality development
Risk assessment of subway station fire by using a Bayesian network-based scenario evolution model
Get PDFSubway station fires frequently result in massive casualties, economic losses and even social panic due to the massive passenger flow, semiconfined space and limited conditions for escape and smoke emissions. The combination of different states of fire hazard factors increases the uncertainty and complexity of the evolution path of subway station fires and causes difficulty in assessing fire risk. Traditional methods cannot describe the development process of subway station fires, and thus, cannot assess fire risk under different fire scenarios. To realise scenario-based fire risk assessment, the elements that correspond to each scenario state during fire development in subway stations are identified in this study to explore the intrinsic driving force of fire evolution. Accordingly, a fire scenario evolution model of subway stations is constructed. Then, a Bayesian network is adopted to construct a scenario evolution probability calculation model for calculating the occurrence probability of each scenario state during subway station fire development and identifying critical scenario elements that promote fire evolution. Xi’an subway station system is used as a case to illustrate the application of Bayesian network-based scenario evolution model, providing a practical management tool for fire safety managers. The method adopted in this study enables managers to predict fire risk in each scenario and understand the evolution path of subway station fire, supporting the establishment of fire response strategies based on “scenario–response” planning
The roles of partnering and boundary activities on project resilience under disruptions
Get PDFConstruction projects inevitably encounter adversities that threaten their functionality and performance. Understanding the enhancement of project resilience, especially in extreme situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, is crucial. This study introduces a theoretical model to explore how partnering and boundary activities among project stakeholders influence project resilience, and in turn, impact project performance. Based on data gathered from a questionnaire survey involving 172 construction projects in China, the results indicate that project resilience directly and positively affects project performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Partnering and boundary activities emerge as primary determinants of project resilience. They not only directly impact project resilience and performance, but their impact on project resilience also indirectly influences project performance. The findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights into the improvement of project resilience through effective boundary activities and partnering
An exploratory study of the evolution of urban green spaces in Lisbon using diachronic analysis of orthophoto maps
Get PDFGreen urbanism, namely in the form of consolidated urban green spaces (UGSs), has gained traction along with the reformist impetus of urban design, based on the ideal of efficient, functional, sustainable cities that promote a better quality of life for their citizens and on the notion of making urban expansion compatible with natural resources. Using a diachronic analysis (1995–2020) of the orthophoto maps of 38 UGSs included in the last version of the main municipality’s legislation, framed within the Plano Director Municipal (PDM), whose first version was approved in 1994, we assessed the situation and evolution of the UGSs in the centre of Lisbon, Portugal. We conclude that with fewer or more incidences, depending on the periods analysed, the structure of UGSs in the centre of Lisbon has undergone significant changes, whether in terms of the implementation and requalification of existing UGSs or in terms of the increment and quality of UGSs (space created), thus respecting to a lesser or greater degree the strategic lines defined in various plans, as is the case of the PDM itself, but also of other important documents, such as the Carta Estratégica 2010–2024, Estratégia de Reabilitação Urbana 2011–2024 and Estratégia Regional de Lisboa 2030
Enhancing SME performance through innovation: evidence from a transition economy – Kosovo
Get PDFPurpose – What are the effects of implementing various types of innovation, including product, process, and technological innovations, on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing sector? This is a question that preoccupies us a lot. This study seeks to examine the individual and integrated effects of these innovations. Indeed, we examine the impact of three categories of innovation – product, process, and technological innovation – on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry.
Research methodology – We used a quantitative approach to execute this research, selecting SMEs at random using self-administered questionnaires. The data collected from 153 manufacturing SMEs was analyzed using hierarchical linear regression to investigate, evaluate, and refine the relation among product, process, and technological innovation and SME performance.
Findings – This study’s findings reveal a clear and direct relationship between these three forms of innovation and SMEs’ performance. This study also provides empirical evidence that various forms of innovation, either examined individually or as integrated, exert a positive effect on the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry.
Limitations – This study focuses on Kosovo-based SMEs, with the assumption of an upright connection between variables. Future studies can examine the existence of reverse causality in a variety of regional, cultural, and industrial settings.
Originality/Value – This study significantly advances existing knowledge by providing useful insights into the complex interplay among product, process, and technological innovation (examined from both individual and integrated perspectives) as well as the performance of SMEs in the manufacturing industry
“Everything has to be done in the Polish way”: creativity barriers experienced by innovators in a post-Soviet society
Get PDFInnovators from post-Soviet transition societies experience barriers to creativity different from those experienced by inventors in developed countries. Since there has been little research into this subject so far, this article is an attempt to fill this gap. The aim of the study is to explore the mindset and environmental creativity hurdles experienced by Polish innovators as the representatives of post-Soviet states. The data was collected through individual in-depth interviews. Sixteen innovators from Białystok, a city in the Eastern part of Poland, were interviewed. The findings show that innovators experience both individual and environmental hurdles in their creativity actions. In the case of mindset barriers, the feeling of low self-esteem and lack of appropriate knowledge are listed as the most significant barriers, especially at the beginning of the career. The study has shown that although individual barriers hinder creative work, innovators make successful attempts to overcome them. Environmental blocks, however, have the most detrimental influence on innovators’ creativity and are the most difficult to overcome. Among these barriers innovators mention the characteristics of homo sovieticus mentality, such as informal relations, nepotism, and lack of trust among academics and businesspeople. The study supports the hypothesis that the post-Soviet culture largely determines the low innovation level in Eastern European countries
Theory of planned behaviour analysis on entrepreneurial creativity
Get PDFThe importance of entrepreneurial education in Indonesian higher education has been argued. In this study, we examined how entrepreneurial creativity, a crucial aspect of entrepreneurship education, contributes significantly to the emergence of entrepreneurial qualities. The theory of planned behaviour serves as the theoretical underpinning for the questionnaire we developed for this quantitative investigation. For this study, we polled 400 college students from numerous private colleges in Indonesia. We ran a route analysis on the data using SmartPLS version 3 as our analysis tool. Our findings demonstrate that when theory of planned behaviour variables have an impact on creativity, which means that subjective norm, attitude toward entrepreneurship, and perceived behavioural control should be focused on because these factors eventually have crucial impact on entrepreneurial creativity
Influence of creative, social, and practical imaginativeness on self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention of engineering students
Get PDFDespite the importance of imagination to entrepreneurship, it is underexplored by researchers in the field. Imaginativeness is a cognitive ability that coalesces the capacity for imagination with the knowledge required to rationally conjure up a variety of task-related scenarios. It is especially helpful for those who lack prior experience and therefore can be beneficial for recent graduates and anyone who wants to launch their own business. In our study, we examine whether imaginativeness, in its three forms, can influence engineering students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Our study recorded 216 responses to prove the hypotheses employing partial least squares path modeling using SmartPLS3, and we inferred that creative imaginativeness, social imaginativeness, and practical imaginativeness are positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy thereby strengthening entrepreneurial intention. The study provides distinctive insights into the study of imagination in the formation of entrepreneurial intention among engineering students in a developing economy, where studies are few