Influence of performance measurement towards construction research and development

• Main Author: Kulatunga, Udayangani
• Published: University of Salford 2008
• Subjects: 624.0684; Construction industry
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.490472

The UK construction industry is being challenged to produce economically, socially and environmentally acceptable products; to satisfy its stakeholders, to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the construction processes and to address resource constraints and sustainable goals. In this context research and development (R&D) activities are identified as vital to address the challenges faced by the construction industry. Despite the importance, there are number of issues that hinder the success of construction R&D activities such as lack of accountability of the R&D resources, inadequate mechanisms to evaluate the success, output not addressing the requirements of the stakeholders, lack of communication and coordination between the parties involved in the R&D process etc. Consequently, these issues have resulted in producing research results with low applicability and have discouraged the investment towards construction R&D. Furthermore, it has been revealed that the cause of a majority of the issues in construction R&D is directly or indirectly rooted with the lack of evaluation mechanisms implying the need for performance measurement (PM). Therefore this study addresses this eminent need by exploring the influence of PM on the construction R&D. The study was argued to be residing in the interpretivism paradigm. A single case study method was used to refine a conceptual framework developed through literature review and expert interviews. Semi structured interviews and a questionnaire survey were used as the data collection techniques. Content analysis and cognitive mapping techniques were used for the analysis of the semi structured interviews whilst descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis of the questionnaire survey. The study reveals critical success factors (CSFs) which need to be managed by PM to influence the success of construction R&D. Further, the study reveals that there is a discrepancy between the importance and implementation of CSFs thus, justifying the need for PM within the construction R&D. Moreover, the study introduces a Performance Measurement System, which evaluates the success of construction R&D activities.