1,720,983 research outputs found
A META-ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP LITERATURE REVIEWS: EXPLORING THE IDENTITY OF THE FIELD
Full text linkThe growing literature in PPP has made the field multi-disciplinary, over-differentiated, and unconsolidated. Taking a meta-analysis lens, this study investigates an unexplored identity of the field. It consolidates 61 review articles in PPP, analyses them across numerous review categories, and provides implications and suggestions for future studies. The review categories include the purpose of study, methods used, dataset details, journal and author details, primary disciplinary focus, awareness of previous review studies, and evolution of the PPP review literature. The findings reveal that the literature progressed through four evolution phases: from initiation, formation, growth, to expansion. Future review works should involve more empirical studies and examine the practical relevance of the PPP research. Promising areas are PPP governance, complexity, post-transfer phases, sustainability-related issues, and real estate development through PPP. The PPP researchers in construction engineering and management, property management, public management, and transportation will benefit from understanding the field’s identity, how it is currently being formed, promising areas, and where the literature is evolving
Research Productivity in Economics and Business Disciplines in Emerging Economies: Insights from Kazakhstan
No full textThe research productivity of a country is positively associated with the development of its scientific capacity, which, in turn, contributes to the nation’s economic growth. In this paper, we explore the research productivity of Kazakhstan in economics and business disciplines and reveal its specific characteristics. Our methodology followed two steps. First, applying scientometric (descriptive statistics and network analysis) methods, we analyzed 3225 articles from Kazakhstan and published in international journals during 1991–2020. We focus on three subject areas in Scopus: Business, management, and accounting; Decision sciences; and Economics, econometrics, and finance. Second, we conduct comprehensive interviews with four experts representing the science sector and government. The study found that research in economics and business disciplines was growing, emphasizing agriculture, agro-industrial complex, cluster development, entrepreneurship, innovative development, investments, and sustainable development areas. The interviews reveal the issues of doing research in higher education institutions (from the bottom-up) and improving the government’s science sector (from the top-down). Among others, these challenges are related to developing critical research areas, science funding, and their impact on economic growth. Our findings may serve as exemplary for other emerging economies that face similar challenges in developing their global research profile
Factors of schedule and cost performance of tunnel construction megaprojects
Full text linkAims: This study illustrates the main factors that influence the cost overruns and schedule delays of tunnel construction megaprojects. Objective: An empirical analysis was carried out based on a dataset collected from a number of recent tunnel megaprojects worldwide. Methods: Analyses of variances and regression analyses were conducted to infer statistical significance and understand the relationships that exist between cost overruns, time delays and variables of context, technical, and governance characteristics of the sample projects. Results: The most significant factors are those related to the complexity of infrastructure and the type of contracting system used to deliver the project. In particular, some technical characteristics pertinent to the size of the tunnel reveal to be influencing factors of both schedule delay and cost overrun, while the usage of a traditional contracting mechanism is likely to impact the cost overrun. The type of infrastructure, region, ownership, and funding scheme are not found to be statistically significant determinants of cost and time performance. Conclusion: This analysis reaffirms that the size and complexity are important factors of typical low performance of tunnel construction megaprojects. The results of this study can be used for strategic design and planning by decision-makers, project managers and designers
Research Productivity in Emerging Economies: Empirical Evidence from Kazakhstan
Full text linkThe growth of the Higher Education and Science (HES) sector is positively associated with its research productivity and has a high potential in emerging countries. To explore such research productivity, this study offers a comprehensive analysis of the scientific literature from Kazakhstan. Our methods included descriptive analysis, network analysis, and author-based productivity analysis (by Lotka’s law) of 23,371 articles from Scopus, published during 1991–2020, and across 25 subject areas. The results of the descriptive analysis showed a substantial increase in the number of and citations to the literature since 2011 in almost all subject areas. However, the network analysis found that research in natural sciences was more developed in topical relationships and international collaborations than research in arts and humanities, social, and medical sciences. The Lotka’s law application revealed that the overall scientific literature in Kazakhstan did not reach its necessary stage of maturity. Additionally, some subject areas demonstrated greater contribution to the overall knowledge base, while others were less productive or lagging in their development. Our findings, useful for researchers and policymakers in emerging countries, can be exemplary in understanding the results of policy reforms aimed to improve the HES sector in emerging countries
A Decade of Transformation in Higher Education and Science in Kazakhstan: A Literature and Scientometric Review of National Projects and Research Trends
Full text linkHigher education and science (HES) is one of the key drivers of a country’s economic growth. In this study, we examine national projects and research capacity in HES in Kazakhstan from 2014 to 2024. We conducted a content review and scientometric analysis with network and temporal visualizations. Our data sources included policy documents, statistical reports, and the Scopus database. Our findings suggest that, while Kazakhstan aligns with global trends in the field (e.g., digitalization, scientometrics monitoring, and internationalization), these are achieved through a state-led, policy-driven approach shaped by its post-Soviet context. Additionally, we note a dual structure in Kazakhstan’s HES sector, characterized by a strong top-down direction and increasing institutional engagement. In terms of the thematic trends from the temporal analysis, the country experienced a three-staged evolution: foundational reforms and system modernization (2014–2017), capacity building and evaluation (2018–2021), and, most recently, strategic expansion, inclusivity, and globalization (2022–2024). Throughout the analyzed period, low R&D intensity, disciplinary imbalances, and structural barriers still undermine desired development efforts in HES. The analyzed case of Kazakhstan can serve as “lessons learned” for policymakers and researchers working in the science evaluation and scholarly communication area in similar emerging or transition countries
Estimation of Risk Contingency Budget in Projects using Machine Learning
Full text linkTo manage risks against unexpected cost overruns, project teams use Contingency Budget (CB). Its accurate estimation has been a subject of multiple studies proposing either deterministic or probabilistic models. In this study, we propose a deterministic Machine Learning-based approach to estimate CB. Based on the k-means clustering, our model integrates the Expected Monetary Value (EMV) method and binomial distribution concepts. We test our methodology using 20 risk registers containing 25 risks with associated probabilities and impacts. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we compare our model's estimates with the ones by the traditional EMV. The model provided more accurate CB estimates and is more straightforward in use than the Monte Carlo simulation
A Review of the Use of Game Theory in Project Management
No full textThe growing literature on game theory models in project management is reviewed in this paper. A systematic study that includes collecting materials, defining the structural dimensions and categories, presenting a descriptive analysis, and evaluating the results has been carried out. Application areas of game theory in project management were explored and the research gaps were identified. The literature review revealed the need for studying knowledge-sharing mechanisms to enhance project governance and cooperation, developing dynamic models to integrate various sources of uncertainty, optimizing different financial objective functions to improve the project's capital structure, developing integrated scheduling techniques to facilitate project planning and control, and formulating strategies to improve bidding under fierce competition. These findings contribute to identifying the promising directions in the management in engineering research
A Machine Learning Study to Enhance Project Cost Forecasting
Full text linkIn project management it is critical to obtain accurate cost forecasts using effective methods. This study presents a Machine Learning model based on Long-Short Term Memory to forecast the project cost. The model uses the seven-dimensional feature vector, including schedule and cost performance factors and their moving averages as a predictor. Based on the cost variation patterns from the training phase, we validate the model using three hundred experiments in the testing phase. Overall, the proposed model produces more accurate cost estimates when compared to the traditional Earned Value Management index-based model
A multi-disciplinary meta-review of the public–private partnerships research
Full text linkPublic-private partnerships (PPP) research is very diverse. This field of research covers different topics across multiple disciplines and is disseminated in many journals. This has led to numerous review studies with a single discipline focus that apply mostly subjective or descriptive analyses. With the purpose of providing an integrated overview of all the disciplines that involve PPP and uncovering connections between these, this research provides an extensive PPP literature meta-review that uses objective bibliometric measures on 1970 articles from 773 journals. The methodology involves ranking journals, identifying topical trends over 1989–2018, and clustering the literature to create a PPP knowledge map with associated research domains. The findings reaffirm that PPP is not only a multi-disciplinary research area but also a self-contained meta-discipline that integrates some allied disciplines with their foundational theories. The PPP meta-discipline is largely dominated by Construction Management and Economics (CME), Public Administration and Management, and Transportation Research disciplines, and integrates emerging topics such as sustainability, governance and stakeholders management. This study contributes to the CME scholarly community as it offers the first comprehensive meta-analysis of PPP literature and helps understanding PPP under the lens of a multi-disciplinary perspective
A Scientometric Analysis of Studies on Risk Management in Construction Projects
Full text linkRisk management is one of the topical areas in construction project management research. However, no attempt has been made in the past decades to explore the emerging themes in this area. This paper reviews the research trends in risk management in construction. The bibliometric data of 1635 publications between 1979 and 2022 were extracted from Scopus using a set of keywords. The study used VOSviewer and Gephi to conduct a scientometric analysis on the extracted publications. The review outcome indicates a significant increase in publications on risk management in construction, with about 205 publications recorded between 2021 and 2022 alone. Based on this analysis, it is projected that the next decade will see significant research on risk management, especially as the construction industry moves towards Industry 5.0 with many uncertainties. Further, the most productive countries of risk management studies in construction include China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong. Emerging key research areas are discussed using network diagrams and clusters. These areas include the processes in risk management, risk analytical models and techniques, sources of risk and uncertainties, effective knowledge-based systems for improved risk management, risk contingency in construction contracts, risk-integrated project planning and scheduling, and stakeholder management. The findings of this study inform researchers on the current progress of risk management studies in construction and highlight possible research directions that can be considered
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