Construction Industry

The objective of the present study is to provide a strategic entrepreneurial marketing model in the construction industry in the construction companies of the north of the country using the Grounded theory. The present study is a qualitative research which uses Grounded theory by focusing on deep and semi-structured interview and providing an entrepreneurial strategic marketing strategy. In this study, 30 interviews were conducted on university and construction industry experts in construction companies of the north of the country to reach a consensus that was carried out using snowball sampling. Data were analyzed by open, axial and selective coding and the case studies were presented. In the current study, instead of testing the theory and confirming or rejecting it, it was presented limited to reality. The collected data were analyzed using Nvivo software and the components were identified. The results indicated that the causal conditions affecting strategic entrepreneurial marketing include communication capabilities, organizational capability, organizational strategy, management support and organization and organizational systems. The intervening condition include relationship orientation, environmental capability, and corporate governance, and ground conditions include system thinking, application of technology and organizational culture. Furthermore, the proposed strategies include intellectual capital management, strategic alignment and knowledge elevation to improve strategic and tactical performance of the company as a result of strategic entrepreneurial marketing.

This s tudy examined national culture dimensions that cons titute barriers to the implementation of sus tainable cons truction practices among cons truction professionals in Nigeria. It deployed S tatis tical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) software to analyze data collected through a ques tionnaire survey. Mean Score Index (MSI) result revealed 47 national culture variables that have great potential for causing barriers to implementation of sus tainable cons truction practices in Nigeria with the MSI range of 3.30 - 4.72. The variables were grouped into six of Hofs tede’s national culture dimensions (large Power Dis tance, Individualism, Masculinity, s trong Uncertainty Avoidance, Short-Term Orientation, and Res traint) with an average MSI range of 3.84 - 4.22. The Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U tes ts indicated that irrespective of organizational and individual characteris tics, there was no significant difference in the national culture of cons truction professionals hindering the implementation of sus tainable cons truction practices in Nigeria (p>0.05); but for Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) dimensions which indicated significant differences (p <0.05) due to personal attributes, disposition, and exposure. The study established that the differences have only a small effect (r = 0.171 and 0.156 respectively), signifying that the observed differences in IDV and UAI culture dimensions based on years of experience, were not a result of differences in the sizes of the groups. They then study raised concern for a new way of thinking towards overcoming barriers to implementing sustainable construction practices in Nigeria and suggested for optimization and operationalization of national culture dimensions that support the implementation of sustainable construction practices and eschewing those that cause barriers.

Although a growing body of literature maintains that the construction industry plays a significant role in the economic development world-over, the extent of its regulation may, however, undermine the objectives of sustainable urban development. This study, as a result, investigates the factors influencing quality assurance within the building construction industry in Kenya, a case study of Kisii town. The target population comprised of 7430 residential developments from seven neighbourhoods that were spatially segregated using a high-resolution satellite image. Proportional stratified random sampling was thereafter adopted to select 364 developers through questionnaires. Results indicated that the key factors that undermine the extent of quality assurance within the building construction industry in the study area included failure to obtain a development permit, non-engagement of registered professionals in building design, an inadequate inspection of buildings during construction phases and unauthorized occupation of buildings by developers. The study concludes that despite the existing legal framework, these challenges continue owing to inadequate development control by the County Government of Kisii. This study contributes to the literature on the built environment by demonstrating how factors limiting quality assurance within the construction industry may be statistically analyzed.