As the world construction market becomes more globalized, an increasing number of construction companies, including both large companies (LCs) and small and medium-sized companies (SMCs), have extended their business to the global market. During this process, the number of collaborative ventures to mitigate the burden of entry risks has greatly increased. This study aims to investigate the formation of construction firms’ collaborative networks for performing international projects from both the LC and SMC network perspectives. To this end, 389 real cases of overseas projects executed by Korean firms over the last two decades that involved collaboration were analyzed using social network analysis (SNA) approach. The result showed that LCs and SMCs have different perspectives when pursuing collaborative ventures for overseas construction projects; LCs have a tendency to form large and dense networks, whereas SMCs prefer to maintain long-term and targeted relationships. Moreover, this study showed a series ...

International projects are inherently exposed to unpredictable and complicated risk scenarios. To minimize possible losses due to these risk exposures, construction firms have their own procedures or basic tools for selecting potential projects, but they are usually based on the experience and knowledge of the firm’s engineers and decision makers that are often very subjective and lack scientific basis. This paper presents a quantitative profit prediction model for the early stage of an international project as a systematic risk-screening tool that involves the processes of defining, analyzing, and evaluating various profit-influencing risk variables. Various successful and unsuccessful international project cases with respect to profit levels are collected. Then, a scale-based profit prediction model to select candidate overseas projects is developed through factor analysis and a multiple regression analysis. Finally, this paper provides implications for global project management and lessons learned from...

International construction projects do not necessarily produce a high level of profit, as opposed to what is generally expected of high-risk international attempts. Overseas construction projects tend to have various risk factors that can diminish project profitability. This paper provides a comprehensive hierarchical framework to investigate the cause-and-effect relationships of various profit-influencing factors for international construction projects. After long-term profitability trends are analyzed based on a total of 3,487 international projects performed by Korean global contractors during the last 4 decades, case surveys of 126 overseas projects are conducted to draw the criticalities of each factor and to develop a hierarchical framework. An in-depth comparative case study of 20 additional international projects is also performed to verify the applicability of the hierarchical framework. Finally, we present significant distinctions between successful and failed projects from the comparative case ...

Construction-site images that are now easily obtained from digital cameras have the potential to automatically provide the project status information. For example, once construction objects such as concrete columns are accurately identified and counted, the current level of project progress in the column installation activity can easily be measured. However, in order to identify and count the number of concrete columns installed at a particular point of time, a robust object recognition methodology is required. Without the successful recognition and extraction of the construction object of interest, it is almost impossible to understand the current level of project progress. This paper presents a robust image processing methodology to effectively extract the objects of interest from construction-site digital images. The proposed methodology makes use of advanced imaging algorithms and a three-dimensional computer aided design perspective view to increase the accuracy of the object recognition. Tests show ...

Attention to development of automation and robotics technology in the construction industry seems to have been growing and there has been an increased awareness of the potential benefits of automation and robotics technology development. Although research and development (R&D) facilitates progress in the state of technology and-in the long run-yields significant savings in time and money for companies that take advantage of it, the costs of R&D in the short term are high and resources are limited. Analysis of trends in existing research is helpful in identifying where further R&D is needed and in suggesting directions for future research. In addition, it can be used to help predict the return on investment in individual technologies. This study was to identify global trends and issues in automation and robotics technology in the construction industry by analyzing papers published in the proceedings of the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC). The results of that analysis show that various research topics are actively researched from the viewpoint of automation in construction and contributed by different countries and regions as well as different types of research institutions.

A shortage of construction field workers has been a serious and chronic problem, both in developed and developing countries. As a solution to the increasing demands of the workforce, use of foreign workers has been a common practice for a country to gain laborers from nearby less-developed countries. While it can contribute to lessening the labor deficiency, foreign workers are typically less productive and often encompass diverse risks due to cultural differences, communication difficulties, and different work ethics and customs. Despite these facts, construction films do not address these issues and lag in establishing appropriate management strategies to improve the performance of foreign workers. This paper investigates key issues with respect to foreign laborers through a series of focused interviews and field surveys. Then, it draws the primary causes of low performance and presents effective general guidelines for improving foreign workers’ performance. The writers also provide an analysis of case ...