An input-output table perspective on measuring construction productivity

In the field of construction economics, input-output analysis based studies' have attracted a lot of interest from the academics and researchers. The wide efforts are to carry out analyses and comparisons of economic indicators in construction sectors across countries and years. There has been little research modelling the construction productivity using input-output tables. This research takes advantage of the input-output analysis to develop a perspective for determining the productivity of an industrial sector. The developed quantitative formulas are fully based on the economic indicators generated from an input-output table. Using the newly published OECD input-output database, historical analyses and comparisons are carried out to indicate the differences of prod uctivi ties of the construction sectors in Australia and Japan.

The impact of Porter's strategy types on the role of market research and customer relationship management

Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the influence of Porter’s strategy types on the use of customer relationship management (CRM) techniques and traditional market research, against theoretical and empirical evidence that differences in strategy types may result in variation in favoured marketing information sources and procedure.

Design/methodology/approach – Depth interviews generated a series of scale items, which were combined with others derived from the literature in a questionnaire measuring strategy types, the roles of market research, and the characteristics of CRM systems. Responses were obtained from 240 senior marketing managers in Australia, and applied to the testing of five research propositions.

Findings – ANOVA found no differences in CRM usage among the strategy types. Variation was widespread, however, in four roles of traditional market research: enhancing strategic decision making, increasing usability of existing data, presenting plans to senior management, and achieving productivity and political outcomes.

Research limitations/implications – Future researchers using the Porter strategic types should separate “marketing differentiators” from “product differentiators” because they function and compete differently.

Practical implications – All organisations can benefit from CRM systems, but “marketing differentiators” exhibit a relatively higher usage of traditional market research. This is likely to be because they compete by creating softer product differences, while others do so on harder characteristics such as price or product functionality.

Originality/value – This is the first study to use the Porter types to explain differences between the roles and uses of market research and CRM within organisations.

Job satisfaction versus office environment : influences on academic knowledge worker productivity

This research paper provides a more encompassing review of self-assessment of a variety of knowledge worker activities, as well as providing the basis for these self assessments. A novel aspect is the inclusion of motivational affects which are considered alongside work environment influences on productivity. A questionnaire was administered on 25 academics. The group was questioned for their perceptions of their productivity for a range of their everyday activities and what areas of their work environment enhanced or disrupted their productivity. Job satisfaction was also assessed. The results from a series of self-assessments show that on the whole, the sample perceive themselves to be reasonably to very productive in all tasks undertaken. Staff satisfaction measures are generally very positive with collaboration and job enjoyment being motivational factors for this group. Noise levels, thermal conditions, poor lighting and a lack of storage seem to be the biggest inhibitors of productivity. Having a window to look out of and access to natural light seem to enhance an academics view of their productivity.

Productivity measurement of the construction industry in Australia

This research adopts the Malmquist total factor productivity model with Lovell's decomposition and renovated partial factor model to evaluate changes of productivity levels in Australia's construction industry. Research results find that the average annual productivity levels for Australian states are slowly growing, except for Queensland's total factor and capital productivities.

Picture this : a simple graph that reveals much ado about research

Funnel graphs provide a simple, yet highly effective, means to identify key features of an empirical literature. This paper illustrates the use of funnel graphs to detect publication selection bias, identify the existence of genuine empirical effects and discover potential moderator variables that can help to explain the wide variation routinely found among reported research findings. Applications include union–productivity effects, water price elasticities, common currency-trade effects, minimum-wage employment effects, efficiency wages and the price elasticity of prescription drugs.

‘Inspired and assisted’, or ‘berated and destroyed’? Research leadership, management and performativity in troubled times

Research leadership in Australian universities takes place against a backdrop of policy reforms concerned with measurement and comparison of institutional research performance. In particular, the Excellence in Research in Australian initiative undertaken by the Australian Research Council sets out to evaluate research quality in Australian universities, using a combination of expert review process, and assessment of performance against ‘quality indicators’. Benchmarking exercises of this sort continue to shape institutional policy and practice, with inevitable effects on the ways in which research leadership, mentoring and practice are played out within university faculties and departments. In an exploratory study that interviewed 32 Australian academics in universities in four Australian states, we asked participants, occupying formal or informal research leadership roles, to comment on their perceptions of research leadership as envisioned and enacted in their particular workplaces. We found a pervasive concern amongst participants that coalesced around binaries characterized in metaphoric terms of ‘carrots and whips’. Research leadership was seen by many as managerial in nature, and as such, largely tethered to instrumentalist notions of productivity and performativity, while research cultures were seen as languishing under the demoralizing weight of reward and punishment systems. Here, we consider what is at stake for the future of the academic workforce under such conditions, arguing that new models of visionary research leadership are urgently needed in the ‘troubled times’ of techno-bureaucratic university reforms.

TQM and labour productivity in Jordanian industrial companies

Reports on research to determine the degree of application of total quality management (TQM) philosophy and practices in industrial corporations in Jordan. Uses primary and secondary empirical data to examine the link between TQM and labour productivity. Survey responses were classified into two groups: high-TQM implementation and low-TQM implementation. Found that mean labour productivity measurements for high-TQM companies were significantly higher than for low-TQM companies over the period 1993-1998. Also, mean growth rates of labour productivity measurements for companies with high-level TQM were higher than for those with low-level TQM during this period. Regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant positive relationship between TQM and labour productivity.

Malmquist indices of total factor productivity changes in the Australian construction industry

Construction is an important industry and forms a vital part of national economics in the world. Factors affecting the productivity of the construction industry should be measured appropriately to reflect its development situation and economic performance. The Malmquist index method with a novel decomposition technique is employed to estimate the total factor productivity of the Australian construction industry during the period 1990-2007 and to analyse the factors affecting the technological change in the industry. Research results exemplified by two input variables and one output variable elaborate how construction technology, pure technical efficiency and scale economy take effect in the change of construction productivity. In addition, based on temporal and spatial comparisons, the analysis for construction productivities reveals their changes over time and across the country. Proposals and recommendations are expected to be beneficial for policy making and strategic decisions to improve the performance of the Australian construction industry.

Construction capital productivity measurement using a data envelopment analysis

During the past few decades, the construction industry has experienced a series of changes including the innovation of construction technologies and the enhancement of management strategies. These improvements should have had a considerable effect on industrial efficiency and productivity performance, but research is needed to address whether the capital productivity levels of the construction industry have in fact shown such a huge improvement. This paper aims to develop an analysis procedure to measure capital productivity changes and to reasonably quantify factors affecting productivity levels in the construction industry. Based on the data envelopment analysis method, this research has developed a novel model measuring capital productivity and has applied it to the Australian construction industry. The numerical results indicate that the average annual capital productivity levels of the construction industry are slowly growing in all the Australian states and territories except for Queensland and Western Australia. In addition, construction technologies are shown to have a close relationship with the changes in capital productivity according to the temporal-spatial comparisons of productivity indices. The research findings are expected to be beneficial for making policy and strategic decisions to improve the capital productivity performance.

Measuring the impact of arthritis on worker productivity : perspectives, methodologic issues and contextual factors

Leading up to the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) 10 meeting, the goal of the Worker Productivity Special Interest Group (WP-SIG) was to make progress on 3 key issues that relate to the application and interpretation of worker productivity outcomes in arthritis: (1) to review existing conceptual frameworks to help consolidate our intended target and scope of measurement; (2) to examine the methodologic issues associated with our goal of combining multiple indicators of worker productivity loss (e.g., absenteeism <—> presenteeism) into a single comprehensive outcome; and (3) to examine the relevant contextual factors of work and potential implications for the interpretation of scores derived from existing outcome measures. Progress was made on all 3 issues at OMERACT 10. We identified 3 theoretical frameworks that offered unique but converging perspectives on worker productivity loss and/or work disability to provide guidance with classification, selection, and future recommendation of outcomes. Several measurement and analytic approaches to combine absenteeism and presenteeism outcomes were proposed, and the need for further validation of such approaches was also recognized. Finally, participants at the WP-SIG were engaged to brainstorm and provide preliminary endorsements to support key contextual factors of worker productivity through an anonymous “dot voting” exercise. A total of 24 specific factors were identified, with 16 receiving ≥ 1 vote among members, reflecting highly diverse views on specific factors that were considered most important. Moving forward, further progress on these issues remains a priority to help inform the best application of worker productivity outcomes in arthritis research.

Labour productivity measurement with variable returns to scale in Australia's construction industry

As an important productivity indicator, the change of labour productivity is one indispensable marker in determining the rise or fall of overall industrial performance. This study aims to address whether the labour productivity level of the Australian construction industry has, in fact, shown a huge improvement during the last few decades. This article constructs a measuring method estimating labour productivity changes based on the data envelopment analysis technique with variable returns to scale. By adopting a production frontier approach, the labour productivity index can be broken down into components attributable to efficiency change, technological progress and capital accumulation. The numerical results exemplified by a single-input and single-output system indicate that the average annual labour productivity levels of the construction industry are slowly growing in all the Australian states and territories. However, the year-on-year change in the overall labour productivity performance does not maintain a long-term increase over the period 1990–2008. The study forms the basis for further industrial productivity research. Proposals and recommendations are expected to be beneficial for making policy and strategic decisions to improve the performance of the construction industry.

Did the late-2000s financial crisis influence construction labour productivity?

The late-2000s global financial crisis has wrought dramatic impacts on the construction industry. However, the issue of whether the crisis influenced the behaviours of the construction industry has not been addressed yet. This research presents an econometric approach to investigating the effects of the recent global financial crisis on construction labour productivity. By employing the error correction model and panel regression methods, the direct and indirect effects of the financial crisis on the changes in Australian construction labour productivity are explored at national and state levels. Neither the direct nor the indirect effects appear statistically significant. The results indicate that the direct effect of the financial crisis drives up construction labour productivity at the national level, while the indirect effect diminishes productivity. The effects of the financial crisis on the state construction labour productivity vary from state to state. The financial crisis influenced construction labour productivity directly and significantly in the northern and eastern regions, while the direct effects appear not significant in the other states and territories. The indirect effects of the financial crisis on productivity are statistically significant in three regions: the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. By comparison, the model with the financial effects fails to provide more accurate simulating results. As such, this research concludes that the influence of the late-2000s financial crisis on Australian national and state construction labour productivity is limited.

Measuring retail productivity What really matters?

Retail productivity measurement has commonly used ratios of outputs, such as sales, and input factors like capital and labour to measuredifferent facets of productivity. However, these store-specific ratios are also likely to be influenced by other context-specific factors affectingthe reliability and validity of these measures. This paper contributes to the research on productivity measurement by developing and testing acomposite set of measures for retail productivity including exogenous factors. The empirical work is based on pharmacists in New Zealand(354) and Australia (336) using an instrument that is pretested in Canada (74) for both its external and internal validity. The data wereanalysed using LISREL to create comprehensive models of the relationships between and among the identified productivity factors. Thestudy revealed that some competitive factors and demand-related factors play a significant role in the productivity of the stores in both NewZealand and Australia. This implies that correct measurement of retail productivity must include exogenous factors to be accurate. Thetheoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed.