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Article
Publication date: 30 April 2021

Hongjiang Yao, Yongqiang Chen, Yangbing Zhang and Bo Du

The purpose of this paper is to establish an integrated framework of the antecedents of enforcement after contract violations in construction projects and to examine whether…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to establish an integrated framework of the antecedents of enforcement after contract violations in construction projects and to examine whether contract provisions (control and coordination provisions) and trust (goodwill and competence trust) affect enforcement mechanisms (contractual enforcement and relational enforcement).

Design/methodology/approach

A survey method was employed to test the hypotheses. The authors collected data from the Chinese construction industry, and general contractor respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire about a contract violation by one of their subcontractors.

Findings

Control provisions and competence trust are positively related to contractual enforcement, but goodwill trust is negatively related to contractual enforcement. Relational enforcement is influenced by goodwill trust and competence trust.

Research limitations/implications

This study treats contract violations as a given variable, and it focuses on contract violations by subcontractors. The cross-sectional design makes it difficult to confirm the causality of the relationships.

Practical implications

Overly strict contractual enforcement can generate disputes and a vicious cycle of retaliation, and overly severe relational enforcement can damage a potentially profitable long-term relationship. In construction projects, the violating party will benefit from this study to avoid excessively contractual enforcement and relational enforcement, thus developing a more collaborative atmosphere on the current project and even establishing a solid long-term relationship.

Originality/value

This study extends the project management literature by investigating the antecedents of enforcement after contract violations, an area not yet fully researched.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 14 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 March 2021

Yangbing Zhang, Yousong Wang and Hongjiang Yao

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the embeddedness of relational behaviours in contractual relations and the development of inter-organisational trust between…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the embeddedness of relational behaviours in contractual relations and the development of inter-organisational trust between contracting parties in construction projects.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was undertaken to collect data from 310 experienced project practitioners. Hierarchical regression and curvilinear regression were mainly used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results validated the role of relational behaviours in boosting trust expectation, with the contractual context dampening the positive effect only slightly. However, the impact of the embedded relational behaviours on trust intention was found contingent on the equality of outcome: relational behaviours make an impact on trust intention opposite to what the equality of outcome makes; the combination of relational behaviours and the equality of outcome finally has a positive impact on trust intention. As such, the relational behaviours embedded in contractual relations would help reduce particular distrust or improve trust when the outcome is perceived equal.

Research limitations/implications

The conclusions are derived from the Chinese cultural background and may apply to a certain geographical scope. The nonprobability sampling method also limits the generalization of some conclusions. Besides, the results may present the contractor's view better than the owner's view.

Practical implications

This research would help the practitioners to find a balance between relational behaviours and contractual behaviours in managing inter-organisational relationship. It would also supply effective ways for contracting parties to reduce particular distrust or cultivate particular trust in construction projects.

Originality/value

Previous studies have investigated the unique impact of relational behaviours and contractual behaviours on trust. However, few of them have checked how the mixture of both kinds of behaviours influences trust. This paper contributes to this knowledge by investigating how the embeddedness of relational behaviours in contractual relations influences the trust between contracting parties.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 April 2024

Yanliang Niu, Chang Dai, Renjie Zhang and Hongjiang Yao

This study is devoted to examining the peer effects of engineering enterprises’ internationalization from the viewpoint of industry subdivision and how information and competition…

Abstract

Purpose

This study is devoted to examining the peer effects of engineering enterprises’ internationalization from the viewpoint of industry subdivision and how information and competition alter peer effects. Furthermore, the heterogeneity of peer effects is analyzed based on manager characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, multiple regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 38 Chinese engineering enterprises listed in the Engineering News-Record’s top 250 international contractors over the period of 2013–2021. This study collected the paired data from the enterprise annual reports and the China Stock Market & Accounting Research database.

Findings

The results reveal that (1) there exist peer effects within the subdivided industry of the engineering field; the quality of information disclosure of peer enterprises and degree of market competition moderate the peer effects; (2) the peer effects of internationalization are more pronounced in engineering enterprises with managers who have lower ability, hold greater power or are older.

Practical implications

The findings of this study contribute to understanding the peer effect in the process of internationalization of engineering enterprises, and help enterprises to effectively supervise the irrational behavior of top managers, so as to develop better internationalization strategies.

Originality/value

The results extend peer effects to the subdivision industry of the engineering field. Furthermore, this study also enriches the relevant research on peer effects among enterprises by empirically supporting the moderating role of information and competition as well as analyzing the heterogeneity of the peer effects from the perspective of manager characteristics.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 November 2023

Isaac Edem Djimesah, Hongjiang Zhao, Agnes Naa Dedei Okine, Elijah Duah, Kingsford Kissi Mireku and Kenneth Wilson Adjei Budu

Due to the high rate of failure of most crowdfunding projects, knowing the most essential factor to obtain funding success on the crowdfunding platform is of great importance for…

Abstract

Purpose

Due to the high rate of failure of most crowdfunding projects, knowing the most essential factor to obtain funding success on the crowdfunding platform is of great importance for fund seekers on the crowdfunding platform. The purpose of this study is to explore crowdfunding success factors to know the most essential success factor for stakeholders of the crowdfunding platform to make the best decision when seeking funds on the crowdfunding platform. This study identified and ranked crowdfunding success factors for stakeholders of crowdfunding platforms. Sixteen factors were identified and categorized under five broad headings. These were; project ideas, target capital, track records, geographical proximity and equity.

Design/methodology/approach

To rank the identified crowdfunding success factors and subfactors, this study used the Multi-Objective Optimization Based on Ratio Analysis (MULTIMOORA) integrated with the Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solutions (EDAS).

Findings

Target capital ranked first among the five categories—while duration involved in raising funds ranked first among the sixteen subfactors. An approach for analyzing how each success factor enhances a crowdfunding campaign was developed in this study. This study provides valuable insight to fund seekers on the crowdfunding platform on how funding success can be achieved by knowing which factor to consider essential when seeking funds on the crowdfunding platform.

Originality/value

This is the first study to explore crowdfunding success factors using the MULTIMOORA-EDAS method. The use of this method will help fund seekers on the crowdfunding platform to know which crowdfunding success factor is essential, thereby aiding fund seekers to make the best decision when seeking funds on the crowdfunding platform. Also, this study is particularly helpful for business owners, platform operators and policymakers when deciding how to allocate resources, plan campaigns and implement regulations.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2022

Jitender Kumar and Vinki Rani

The aim of this review is to reflect the current state of Financial Technology (FinTech) research along with its journey of development. Further, a conceptual framework showing…

Abstract

The aim of this review is to reflect the current state of Financial Technology (FinTech) research along with its journey of development. Further, a conceptual framework showing the interaction of independent, mediating, and moderating variables with dependent variables (acceptance of FinTech products and services) along with propositions is prepared to facilitate the future researchers. This systematic literature review consists of 110 articles from 78 journals indexed in two academic databases (Scopus and/or Web of Science), extracting facts and figures about FinTech during 2016–2021. Our findings contribute to the literature by exemplifying that FinTech is a mixed set of threats and opportunities. In the present review only 18 articles belong to 2016–2017 but 54 articles are considered from 2020–2021, the increasing number of FinTech articles in high-ranking journals indicate the speedily growing popularity of FinTech. Similarly, secondary data based articles are dominating the primary data based ones. Further, regression analysis and PLS-SEM are the most popular statistical techniques among the authors of FinTech articles. To the best of knowledge of the authors, this is a unique study in which the latest FinTech research findings are skimmed.

Article
Publication date: 26 April 2022

Qi Zhang, Shengyue Hao and Kon Shing Kenneth Chung

A project manager’s (PM) emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for project performance (PP). However, the cause and effect and the potential moderators of the relationship…

1307

Abstract

Purpose

A project manager’s (PM) emotional intelligence (EI) is essential for project performance (PP). However, the cause and effect and the potential moderators of the relationship between EI and PP remain disputed. Some scholars found a positive association between PMs’ EI and project outcomes, while some other studies showed non or negative relation. This paper aims to find the relationship between PMs’ EI and PP and the factors that influence this relationship based on diverse prior research.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a meta-analysis of 5,229 observations based on 24 independent studies from 1990 to 2021.

Findings

Results show that PMs’ EI has a significant positive influence on PP, and the project complexity and measurement of PP are two critical moderators explaining inconsistencies in existing research.

Practical implications

The current study proposes suggestions for construction companies on PMs’ selection and training. This study also offers suggestions for PMs in management practice.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the inconsistencies in prior research results on the relationship between PMs’ EI and PP at the meta-analytic level. This research extends the current literature by revealing the factors leading to existing consistencies that are not explored before. This study implies that the meta-analysis method could help reach a balanced conclusion based on inconsistent results.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 August 2020

Hongfang Zhou, Xiqian Wang and Yao Zhang

Feature selection is an essential step in data mining. The core of it is to analyze and quantize the relevancy and redundancy between the features and the classes. In CFR feature…

1557

Abstract

Feature selection is an essential step in data mining. The core of it is to analyze and quantize the relevancy and redundancy between the features and the classes. In CFR feature selection method, they rarely consider which feature to choose if two or more features have the same value using evaluation criterion. In order to address this problem, the standard deviation is employed to adjust the importance between relevancy and redundancy. Based on this idea, a novel feature selection method named as Feature Selection Based on Weighted Conditional Mutual Information (WCFR) is introduced. Experimental results on ten datasets show that our proposed method has higher classification accuracy.

Details

Applied Computing and Informatics, vol. 20 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2634-1964

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2021

Ahmad Arslan, Bonnie G. Buchanan, Samppa Kamara and Nasib Al Nabulsi

Fintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech…

1271

Abstract

Purpose

Fintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech, base of the pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurs and social value creation, particularly in the SSA context.

Design/methodology/approach

The current paper uses a qualitative research design with open-ended, in-depth interviews as the main data sources. The authors interviewed respondents from the Sierra Leone Fintech Association and four BOP entrepreneurs operating in different sectors.

Findings

The authors find that Fintech services, specifically mobile money, play a significant role in reducing uncertainty surrounding business operations. FinTech also offers growth possibilities for BOP entrepreneurs and creates social value by providing transactional security, convenience and reducing physical cash robberies. At the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing BOP entrepreneurs as well as consumers' skills development.

Research limitations/implications

This study highlights the importance of context-specific theorization when analyzing the interlinkage between BOP entrepreneurship, social value creation and Fintech. For example, the possibility of safety from a street robbery may not appear to be part of social value creation by a technological development like Fintech. However, in a country like Sierra Leone, which has experienced both a civil war and Ebola outbreak, insecurity has been one of the biggest concerns expressed by BOP inhabitants. Hence, scholars need to incorporate contextual elements of risk, uncertainty and volatility while theorizing on Fintech's application in BOP contexts.

Practical implications

A key managerial implication relates to micro-firm entrepreneurs and information specific benefits. Fintech offers entrepreneurs the possibility to be in regular contact with customers and evaluate their purchasing patterns as well as emergent needs. Fintech offers BOP entrepreneurs a possibility to further develop their technological skills as learning to use such apps can be used as a basis for further skills development. From a policy perspective, our study highlights the importance of regulating Fintech charges so that the affordability is increased, which is expected to result in significantly more BOP entrepreneurs using these services.

Social implications

The authors find that at the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing skills development of BOP consumers who interact with case firms.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first studies that specifically focuses on BOP entrepreneurship and social value creation by Fintech services in an SSA context. It is also one of the few studies that incorporates views from both entrepreneurs and the country's Fintech association, rather than focusing solely on either entrepreneurs or Fintech firms. Finally, there is a specific focus on BOP entrepreneurs engaging in micro-entrepreneurship.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

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