Economic aspects of safety in the Greek construction industry

The thesis addresses the economic impacts of construction safety in Greece. The research involved the development of a methodology for determining the overall costs of safety, namely the sum of the costs of accidents and the costs of safety management failures (with or without accident) including image cost. Hitherto, very little work has been published on the cost of accidents in practical case studies. Moreover, to the author’s belief, no research has been published that seeks to determine in real cases the costs of prevention. The methodology developed is new, transparent, and capable of being replicated and adapted to other employment sectors and to other countries. The methodology was applied to three construction projects in Greece to test the safety costing methodology and to offer some preliminary evidence on the business case for safety. The survey work took place between 1999 and 2001 and involved 27 months of costing work on site. The study focuses on the overall costs of safety that apply to the main (principal) contractor. The methodology is supported by 120 discrete cost categories, and systematic criteria for determining which costs are included (counted) in the overall cost of safety. A quality system (in compliance with ISO9000 series) was developed to support the work and ensure accuracy of data gathering. The results of the study offer some support for the business case for safety. Though they offer good support for the economics of safety as they demonstrate need for cost effectiveness. Subject to important caveats, those projects that appeared to manage safety more cost-effectively achieved the lowest overall safety cost. Nevertheless, results are significantly lower than of other published works for two main reasons; first costs due to damages with no potential to injury were not included and second only costs to main constructor were considered. Study’s results are discussed and compared with other publish works.

The social values of wireless technology in the institutional context

Despite growing attention, social values, compared to economic aspects, of information technology (IT) capture substantially less attention in the mainstream IT literature. In the context of mobile technology, social values might be as critical to help justify technology investment as the predominant economics perspective in the existing IT literature. As wireless networks and relevant mobile technologies continue to penetrate the global society and business world, an emerging social phenomenon rapidly reshapes how organizations interact with the technology and reposition themselves in their specific institutional context where organizations often develop networked alliance to compete against one another. This study thus seeks to shed light on how organizations make sense of the social aspects of wireless network implementation. Preliminary understanding derived from two higher education organizations' experiences is summarized. Implications for future research endeavor are suggested.

Techno-economic security aspects of transferring technology to China:the perspective of Danish companies

Danish companies are especially prevalent in China where they have found opportunities to exploit their niche position in a number of specialised product areas. As a result, their operations are often well advanced in terms of the levels of technology transferred and the extent of transfer. Transferring technology brings with it risks as well as benefits. Its absorption and dissemination can, in the longer term, bring about new competitors unless measures are taken to prevent leakage of know-how or the technology supplier can stay ahead of the technological race. This paper draws on data from three Danish case companies that are transferring technology to China. The cases are examined within a framework that allows the identification of the companies’ motivations for transfer against their awareness of the techno-economic security issues. In this way it is possible to highlight the strategic and operational approaches that can be taken to obviate the risks involved.