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More and more investments are being made in energy conversion projects from renewable energy sources (RESs), and a large number of investors are entering this sector. The focus of this study is the decision-making by the investor BD Green Energy in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In order to choose the RES system that would realize this investment in the most efficient way, expert decision-making based on the fuzzy–rough approach and the Bonferroni mean operator was used. Determining the importance of the criteria was conducted using the fuzzy–rough SiWeC (simple weight calculation) method. The results of this method showed that all used criteria have similar importance for the investor. RES system selection was conducted using the fuzzy–rough CoCoSo (combined compromise solution) method. The results of this method showed that investing in photovoltaic (PV) energy is the best for the investor. This research provided guidance on how investors should make investment decisions in RES systems with incomplete information and uncertainty in the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is characterized by its fragmented nature, which introduces numerous uncertainties and challenges for project management. Analyzing project impact factors is crucial for federal agencies to mitigate risks, make informed decisions, and ensure successful project outcomes. Although many previous studies explored critical project impact factors for various project types, this paper's primary objective is to identify and categorize the impact factors critical to projects' success in federal facilities. Additionally, the study ranked impact factors based on their significance and relevance to project management teams in federal facilities. The study surveyed federal agencies to identify the top-ranking factors within and across categories based on their impact. The research methodology encompassed a thorough literature review, data mapping, survey development, and analysis to identify, classify, and rank impact factors for federal projects. Spearman's rank-order correlations were computed for correlations between the impact factor categories. The impact factors were ranked based on their relevance and importance for the federal facilities based on frequency distributions of survey results—aligning with the data mapping and correlations exercises. The study's findings indicate that the top five factors with a maximum negative impact on the federal capital facility project belong to the early project life cycle phases, classified within the Governance and Stakeholders and Planning and Execution categories. The paper's findings aim to emphasize the optimization of stakeholder engagement and strategic planning to address critical risks for federal capital facilities projects early in the project life cycle—particularly the detailed engineering and procurement stages. The study's findings contribute to a better understanding of project management in the federal sector and offer beneficial guidance for future project planning and execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipalities utilise capital projects as one of the strategies in local government to ensure economic development and the provision of services. However, delays in the implementation and deficit maintenance of capital projects may impede the advancement of municipalities. The pivot of the study lies in gaining an in-depth comprehension of the capital budgeting processes and financial allocations for the purposes of implementing capital projects within the city of Tshwane municipality. The kernel of the study is to expose the challenges associated with capital budgeting processes in the municipality. The study was empirical and adopted a qualitative approach. Critical scholarship reviews, open-ended questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews were the data collection techniques that largely guided the study. The study demonstrates how the logic behind the interface between politics and administration largely hampers the effective implementation of capital projects in the municipality. It therefore recommends legislative enforcement to strengthen the essence of democratic processes to circumvent corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early project phases, cross-functional collaboration is required to lead a capital project from an investment option to a full definition before its design and construction commenced. Given that many capital projects are large, complex, and take years to develop, for stakeholders to realize effective project definition and development it is important that they identify—in the early phases—cross-functional collaboration barriers and their contributing factors. The current study conducted a total of 20 interviews with experts from both the business units and project teams in owner companies and Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractors. It identified 14 barriers to effective cross-functional collaboration and 43 associated contributing factors in the early phases of capital projects. To rank the barriers, researchers then applied the Delphi method with a panel of 12 subject matter experts (SMEs). The outcomes of this study can guide practitioners to improve the effectiveness of cross-functional collaboration in early project phases.

The primary purpose of this study is to develop a work process for capital projects that can help the practitioners in developing a facility design standardization program. The goals of this paper are three-fold; 1) to identify and establish key work process tasks for facility standardization, 2) to evaluate the value and difficulty of implementation per each key task, and 3) to identify key parties/players responsible for implementing the identified tasks as well as timings of implementation. The study identifies 41 key tasks for the facility design standardization work process in capital projects. Also, the results show Define Scope and Standardization Approach (#10) and Validate Design Criteria to Standardization Design Envelope (#35) are the most valued tasks and Develop a Standardization Process and Work Process (#7) is the most difficult task to achieve. The results also show that the program lead/manager and project manager are the key responsible players for implementing the key tasks. Finally, the owner is the most accountable (85%), and most of the tasks (50%) must be performed early. The research method relies on a survey, extensive literature review, considerable industry experience of the participants and discussions. This study contributes greatly to facility design standardization strategy in capital projects and serves as a foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, organizational change has been a central concern for capital project organizations, that continue to suffer from poor project performance in a growing industry. As such, capital project organizations must understand the changing environment and the factors driving change within their organizations to remain successful in a changing environment and adapt to change. To help the capital projects industry achieve successful organizational change efforts, this paper aims to 1) identify the external factors that are pushing capital project organizations to change and 2) investigate whether these factors impact organizations differently. To achieve the desired objective, a total of 22 PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) factors were identified and validated with a group of 14 subject matter experts and defined via the context of literature. Then, the factors were evaluated via an online survey to understand whether they impact organizations differently based on their age maturity (including contemporary, transitional, and legacy organizations) and type of work (including owners, contractors, and service providers). Findings from this study can provide capital project practitioners and researchers with valuable insights needed to understand the external factors shaping change within the industry.

Electricity is certainly the noblest form of energy that humanity has learned to create, control, and use. Its production represents an important economic activity, as well as the most important factor for the socio-economic development of a country, while production capacities, i.e., the largest production capacity, the company JSC "ESM", represents the most important segment of the power system. Accordingly, the issue that has been elaborated on is very actual because it addresses the capital projects of JSC "ESM", which are of great economic and environmental importance. After all, investing in growing electricity production, especially from renewable energy sources, has a large impact on the economic development of the country as a whole, as well as on environmental protection. In this context, the analysis in this paper is mainly focused and aims to address the importance and impact of the construction of the capital projects of JSC "ESM" in the development strategy and the creation of sustainable company competitiveness. Therefore, JSC "ESM" as a serious company, should strive and make a great contribution to the implementation of capital projects, due to the great impact, and to be the most important and leading factor in the liberalized market, especially in times of energy crisis in the country and beyond. For this purpose, the data that are carefully selected and processed, form the basic thesis for the specificity, importance, and actuality of the capital projects for the development and competitiveness of the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links Value Management to macro-economics to explore transformational innovation. It borrows from economics and the relationship between technological progress and rising living standards for citizens. Central to this is seeing 'technology' in a wider sense than devices. What makes this paper different is it attempts to link Government spending on capital projects directly to economic growth in an economy. Whilst macroeconomists use historic data, this paper applies those theories to the conceptual stages of capital-projects to become part of a Government's investment appraisal process. As such, this paper outlines a 'how to' approach that will help Governments prefer Foreign Investments that lead to long-term economic growth. The hope is that this paper will stimulate other researchers to replicate the methodology and in so doing open a new direction for innovation methodologies such as Value Engineering and Value Management that link capital projects to growth in GDP.

Environmental regulations can greatly affect the operation of new and existing infrastructure projects. In fact, the economic performance of infrastructure projects is closely related to environmental regulations whose landscape is extremely dynamic. To assist infrastructure project sectors in better coping with environmental regulatory changes, this study proposes guidelines for the robust adaptation to environmental regulations through information collected from an exploratory research process. As part of these guidelines, a process map model was developed that details the different stages in the environmental regulation development process, including prerulemaking, proposed rule development and publication, commenting period, final rule development and publication, and post-promulgation. Five adaptation subprocesses (i.e., regulatory horizon scanning, stakeholder engagement, risk and opportunity assessment, response strategy development, and compliance implementation) are examined to help regulated entities better adapt to regulatory changes across different regulatory stages. This information has the potential to provide companies with a structured stage-by-stage approach for dealing with uncertainties arising from environmental regulation changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standardization is a commonplace idea today; however, capital projects have not been able to achieve high levels of facility design standardization. The Construction Industry Institute (CII) identified 15 standardization critical success factors (CSFs) for capital projects, particularly the upstream, midstream, and mining sector, to help the practitioners achieve higher levels of facility design standardization in capital projects. However, there is a need to better understand the CSFs comprehensively by analyzing data from actual standardized projects. To fill this gap, this study examined CSFs' degrees of accomplishment, as well as project performance scores for different metrics, and have analyzed a correlation between CSFs' accomplishment and the project performance of 43 projects. The results show that the more standardization CSFs are accomplished, the better the project performances. This research also identified which CSFs are commonly accomplished and which CSFs are challenging to accomplish by analyzing the degree of accomplishment of each CSF. The results show that Basic Engineering Design Data, Operations and Maintenance, Technology Maturity, and Experience and Capability of Project Team are the CSFs that are more commonly accomplished, whereas Constructability of Standardization and Feasibility Analysis of Standardization are the CSFs that the industry finds difficult to accomplish. The research findings will help the industry to understand better the importance of the CSFs, which will lead them to achieve better project performance for capital projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links Value Management to macro-economics to explore transformational innovation. It borrows from economics and the relationship between technological progress and rising living standards for citizens. Central to this is seeing 'technology' in a wider sense than devices. What makes this paper different is it attempts to link Government spending on capital projects directly to economic growth in an economy. Whilst macroeconomists use historic data, this paper applies those theories to the conceptual stages of capital-projects to become part of a Government's investment appraisal process. As such, this paper outlines a 'how to' approach that will help Governments prefer Foreign Investments that lead to long-term economic growth. The hope is that this paper will stimulate other researchers to replicate the methodology and in so doing open a new direction for innovation methodologies such as Value Engineering and Value Management that link capital projects to growth in GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study presents a novel method based on stakeholder value network (SVN) to quantify and visualize value exchanges among primary stakeholders when using the building information modeling (BIM). After collecting data from 135 BIM experts from various capital projects in the mainland of China, 95 value flows among 7 BIM-related stakeholders were quantified, including 69% intangible value and 31% tangible value flows. Owners were then selected as focal organizations to analyze 49,775 value cycles starting from and ending with owners. 9 top-ranked value cycles, 3 most important stakeholders (BIM consultants, general contractors, and subcontractors), and 20 top value flows were identified and discussed to enable owners to formulate effective strategies to drive BIM value realization. These results can provide a visualized tool to quantify the perceived value of BIM stakeholders and to formulate value-based strategies to encourage the "buy-in" decisions by stakeholders. Highlights • A quantitative SVN model for BIM-based capital projects is constructed. • "Knowledge/information" flows are identified as primary value flows (38%). • Intangible value flows (69%) are more than twice of tangible ones (31%). • 9 value cycles and 20 value flows primarily support owner's promotion of BIM. • 5 strategies are proposed to ensure BIM implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the concept of project management is considered to be the best concept for efficient management of a project, so it is used all over the world, and most recently in our country. This concept is designed with all the general characteristics of project management, but adapted to the large investment projects. This paper presents the project management concept and project management organization for capital projects. This concept is conceived with all general characteristics of project management, but adopted to the condition of large investment projects. The concept also includes the project team and the project manager, the person authorized and responsible for achieving the objectives planned in the project. For efficient managing by project, it is necessary to insure a good compozition of project team, as a team of people who, in collaboration with project manager, work directly on managing the project. To effectively manage the project, it is necessary to ensure a proper composition of the project team, a team of people who, in collaboration with the project manager to work directly for project management. It is a particularly good method of achieving the objectives planned projects, which means a project with a certain level of performance required in a planned time, with planned costs.

Copyright of World of Real Estate Journal / Swiat Nieruchomosci is the property of Foundation of the Cracow University of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Achieving true sustainability in the conceptualization of new building projects requires radical change compared to traditional green-field projects; circular building principles in a circular economy must become a fundamental part of the process. These principles include product recovery management, life cycle assessment (LCA), design for disassembly sequence planning, adaptability, deconstruction, closed materials loops and dematerialization. These principles recognize the importance of the End-of-Life stage in existing buildings, including adaptive reuse as an attractive alternative in a circular economy. However, the early phases of capital project delivery lack well-developed methods to: (1) decide amongst green-field construction versus adaptive reuse, (2) pre-project planning for closed-loop cycle construction and (3) plan for the optimization of the benefits of adaptive reuse. In this article, we argue that the early capital projects delivery phases for a circular economy should have distinct stages, decision gates and more appropriate planning methods, such as selective disassembly, LCA monetization protocols and optimization methods. An investigation of related studies underpins the capital project planning framework proposed and the research that must still be accomplished to enable a more circular economy in the capital projects sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each economic entity, institution and individual has the responsibility of contributing to the economic development in its region. Creating conditions for the development and empowerment of the business sector are activities that in the long run lead to the strengthening of not only certain economic sectors, but the entire region. In the recent period sources from EU funds for co-financing of capital projects have become available to investors. Given the uncertainty in business conditions, investors’ poor capitalization, lack of business profitability and, in terms of profitability and risk, lack of high-quality capital projects, the benefits of these resources are insufficient and/or inadequately used. The aim of this paper is to analyse the strength and capabilities of Croatian companies for financing and implementation of high-quality capital projects. For this purpose, this paper will present the results of research of financial position of selected companies in 2012. Also, it presents the results of research from 2011 that examined the reality of projections of later activated investment projects. These results are the basis for a conclusion about the ability of management, in the analysed region, to make realistic plans and carry out high-quality capital projects.

The launch of the Eastern Cape’s Provincial Growth Development Plan in 2003 (SA.ECPGDP, 2003) resulted in a capital investment of R556.482million in 40 tourism facilities during the period 20042012. The primary objective of the study was to determine the status quo of these projects and to establish their contribution to the regional economy. The study took the form of a qualitative in-thefield survey to obtain factual data and to establish the participant’s views regarding the successes or failures of these projects and the reasons therefore. Of these projects the vast majority are not operational due largely to poor planning, and a lack of proper management and control. Only nine of the projects are operating and these are mainly small, both in terms of employment figures and turnover, and not contributing significantly to economic development and job creation in the province, as envisaged in the Provincial Growth Development Plan. Investments made were therefore largely fruitless and wasteful, or perhaps a result of questionable actions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current practices of large UK organisations with respect to post-audits of capital projects with the aim of improving management decision making in the future. The investment process has been clearly mapped out in the literature, with the initial project proposal, appraisal, selection (investment decision), implementation, completion, and finally the post-audit. It is this latter stage which is ignored by so many organisations and has received less attention in the academic literature, a gap the author hopes to fill. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are collated from a postal questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, followed by a short e-mail questionnaire. A methodological triangulation of empirical data obtained from the questionnaires and interviews, were undertaken to overcome some of the deficiencies from just using one method of data collection. The research is empirical and uses exploratory descriptive analysis to interpret the findings. The author focuses on the aspect of organisational learning theory as a process of continuous improvement, learning from past experience, especially in the management decision-making paradigm. Findings – The author discovered nine important reasons for undertaking post-audits and ten for not. An important observation is that while those organisations which do not undertake post-audits attach a greater level of importance to “the reasons for not carrying out post-audits” and “the problems faced in the implementation of post-audits”, these difficulties have been overcome by those organisations that undertake post-audits. Evidence suggests that the current change in business culture, as a result of the recent financial crisis, may be refocusing the aims of post-audits from a learning exercise to one of managerial responsibility. Research limitations/implications – The research may be limited (in forming general conclusions) as it is based on a relatively small sample size. The author does not, however, believe that this distracts from its importance. Practical implications – The author argues that training the non-users to overcome the perceived difficulties would enhance the investment decision-making process by encouraging them to learn from the experience of those that undertake post-audits. Originality/value – The research is original as it reports on a current survey and will fill, what the author perceives to be, a gap in the literature. The respondents to the research consists of some of the most senior executives from the largest UK organisations and their views on academic issues are, in many cases, difficult to obtain; this research therefore has value in this respect. The findings point the way to new lines of enquiry in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremely large, complex projects with numerous geographically distributed stakeholders experience substantial risks related to the interfaces among stakeholders. This is particularly true during project definition and design, where despite discrete deliverables across the interfaces, decisions require some iteration. Managing interfaces has become feasible with the advent of internet and electronic product and process-management systems to the extent that full-time interface-management (IM) positions exist in practice. However, IM lacks formal structure, integration with critical-path-method scheduling, and methods to identify high-risk interface points (IPs). Throughout this paper, a graph-based algorithm is developed to identify key IPs in the network of IPs in a capital project. Furthermore, a new approach is discussed to link the key IPs to the interface milestones to identify schedule-related risks and mitigate their adverse impact. The functionality of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated in an offshore model project. The contributions of this paper provide foundational material for further research in IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this study is to demonstrate how probabilistic models may be employed to provide early warnings for distressed capital projects. While identifying the key determinants of project performance is important, few studies test discriminatory power of variables for predicting distressed capital projects. Thus, this longitudinal study of 121 capital projects identifies key variables in the initiation and planning phases of projects that differentiate between healthy and distressed projects at completion. Subsequent univariate logistic analysis shows that the Quality variable provides the highest univariate classification accuracy. Hierarchical logistic-regression analysis reveals high classification accuracy and relatively small differences in overall classification rates. Out-of-sample forecasting validation demonstrates that the optimal model provides a reasonably good overall classification rate of 85.37%. Ultimately, our findings suggest that it is feasible to discriminate simultaneously between healthy and distressed projects prior to the project execution phase in the capital facility delivery process, providing an early warning of projects in distress.

Copyright of Ekonomski Vjesnik is the property of Ekonomski Vjesnik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)