Complex and tall buildings have been constructed in many cities recently. Fire safety should be a major concern of building designers, engineers, and governments. Previous fire experience has made us understand the importance of acquiring fire-ground information to facilitate firefighting operations, evacuation processes, rescues, etc. Recently, the rapid advancement in Information Technology, Data Analytics, and other detection and monitoring systems has provided the basis for fire safety researchers to re-think fire safety strategies in the built environment. Amongst all fire safety studies, evacuation in tall buildings, including elevator evacuations, has attracted much attention. IoT-aided building fire evacuation is a new concept of the building evacuation mode, which improves the building evacuation process by making decisions of escape based on the real-time fire-ground information, such as the fire environment and occupant situations. Focusing on IoT applications in building fire evacuation, this paper explores the advantages and insufficiencies of current smart building fire evacuation systems. A conceptual design of an IoT-aided building fire evacuation control system is described. The system is introduced in the sequence of information needs, information sources and data transmission, and potential services and applications. Finally, new insights into promising 5G technologies for future building fire evacuations are discussed.

Organizations can acquire a competitive advantage by managing effectively for today while simultaneously promoting innovation for the future. A recent review of the annual reports of large Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Owner Operator (AECOO) organizations in the United States (US) have indicated that firms have been allocating more attention to innovation. Previous studies concentrated on viewing the performance and growth of firms based on resources and knowledge. Researchers in strategic management have recently expanded to consider an innovation-based view for studying innovation-induced growth of firms. In this article, we introduce a strategic framework to illustrate the management and transformation of innovation in AECOO organizations on the basis of an innovation-based view of the firm. To support the transformation process, we argue that innovation performance attributes can serve as a reference in the strategic planning process. In particular, we find that innovation should be oriented to the engagement of staff, framed around the organization’s strategies, and contributive to the impact of the organizations. The transformation process is effective when organizations reference these key performance attributes in their strategic framework.