Andrew P. McCoy

Understanding the role of developer/builders in the concurrent commercialization of product innovation

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present part of continuing research on the challenges of entrepreneurial business ventures to commercialize innovative construction products in the residential construction industry.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use workshop and survey data on the role of the developer/builder to further develop the domain‐specific commercialization model for residential construction products. The authors propose a cross‐functional system to better facilitate innovation.Findings – Successful concurrent commercialization requires risk sharing among all members of a products supply chain. The authors advocate concurrent management in commercialization, which requires information sharing and knowledge transfer among supply‐chain members early in a commercialization project and a special form of concurrent engineering for construction products, which is called concurrent commercialization (CC).Practical implications – The research indicates that addressing the developer/build...

Towards establishing a domain specific commercialization model for innovation in residential construction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a commercialization framework that outlines phases and functional areas for technical and business practices in getting innovative products to market. The development of this framework was motivated by a history of failures of entrepreneurial business ventures in the commercialization of construction products.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents Phase 1 of commercialization research efforts, which includes a definition of innovation and commercialization for the residential construction industry; a review of literature related to generic commercialization models; and construction of a new commercialization framework for innovative construction products. This paper also introduces Phase 2 of this research, which includes qualitative and quantitative knowledge capture from construction industry experts; and the development of a domain‐specific commercialization model for the residential industry based on these inputs to reflect the unique challeng...

Building Collaborative Construction Skills through BIM-integrated Learning Environment

The integration of technology and team collaboration is increasingly becoming a critical juncture in construction education of the work environment. Through literature review and interviews, the authors find that students equipped with knowledge of BIM technology is not the ultimate goal, while the collaborative process of using BIM to solve practical construction problems emerges as key to individuals entering the industry. However, a majority of BIM-relevant courses have been taught as technology training without the context of a collaborative learning environment, while the industry values training in collaboration as a paramount skill in possible employees. To fill this gap, the authors assume that the collaborative construction skills can be obtained through training in higher education of construction. This work applies a case study analysis of one of Virginia Tech’s Department of Building Construction courses, the Integrated Construction Studio (ICS), to demonstrate how the BIM process help students to build their collaboration skills in 4Cs: Common goals, Communication, Coordination, and Cooperation. This work then uses a survey analysis to validate the assumptions, and results from statistical analysis reinforce findings from the case study and also suggest some noteworthy observations for the educational integration of technology and collaboration in the industry.

Electrical deaths in the US construction: an analysis of fatality investigations.

Electrocution is among the ‘fatal four’ in US construction according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Learning from failures is believed to be an effective path to success, with deaths being the most serious system failures. This paper examined the failures in electrical safety by analysing all electrical fatality investigations (N = 132) occurring between 1989 and 2010 from the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation programme that is completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Results reveal the features of the electrical fatalities in construction and disclose the most common electrical safety challenges on construction sites. This research also suggests the sociotechnical system breakdowns and the less effectiveness of current safety training programmes may significantly contribute to workers unsafe behaviours and electrical fatality occurrences.

Resilient Built Environment: New Framework for Assessing the Residential Construction Market

AbstractThe residential construction market remains vulnerable to the environment. The architecture, engineering, and construction industry now recognizes natural hazards as an increasing threat to the vitality of the built environment. Resilience has become a central concept for assessing environment adaptations; however, how to assess resilience remains elusive. In an effort to solve this problem, the present work proposes a conceptual framework of resilient built environment (RBE), which focuses on one piece of the resilience puzzle: residential construction in the built environment. This paper also provides a case study to demonstrate how to use the RBE framework to assess the state-level minimum resilience performance for the U.S. residential construction market. Findings from the study indicate that 53% of states have adopted building codes with a satisfactory capability for resilience, which raises a need for new policies on resilience management. The case study validates the RBE framework as a val...

Sociotechnical systems of fatal electrical injuries in the construction industry

AbstractThe construction industry experiences the greatest proportion of workplace electrical injuries globally. Much research effort has gone toward analyzing this phenomenon, yet a majority of which focused on isolated elements while ignored the work system. Modern work systems are complex, within which humans interact with technology, social structures, and environments. Outcomes (including accidents and injuries) resulting from such a complex system are not attained by any system element in isolation. As a result, effective risk management requires the control over the whole sociotechnical system (STS). This work demonstrates such an effort in investigating STSs. The work uses a triangulation approach in examining construction-fatality reports. The findings identify three typical STSs, reveal their system weaknesses, and provide remedial recommendations. The work contributes to the knowledge body of risk management, electrical safety, and research methodologies. The introduced triangulation approach i...

Reducing barriers to remote project planning: Comparison of low-tech site capture approaches and image-based 3D reconstruction

AbstractThis work provides an analysis of the applicability of two image-based three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction techniques—(1) four-dimensional augmented reality (D4AR) 3D reconstruction software and (2) phototourism applications—for remote site construction project planning. Remote sites present uncertainty to construction project planning through access, material and resource availability, potential lack of technical expertise on site, and environmental considerations. Both D4AR and phototourism have the potential to minimize remote site uncertainty by using available camera technology to digitally capture existing site conditions for the development of accurate 3D modeling for construction project planning. For this study, the researchers (1) analyzed the applicability of D4AR 3D reconstruction and phototourism software applications to remote construction planning; (2) determined the appropriateness and robustness of various levels of camera technology for capturing existing conditions on remote s...

Towards Establishing an Innovativeness Index for Construction Sites

The US construction industry is often characterized as laggard in its rate of adoption (innovativeness) for innovative construction products and techniques. In contrast, European construction is often considered advanced. A trip to Spain and Portugal provides a personal lens through which to view European adoption of innovation, albeit a limited view. No current index exists to compare innovation adoption across the construction setting, though. Development of this tool would therefore benefit our understanding of adoption progress in the construction industry. This work establishes such an index and uses a student-based travel abroad program to European construction sites as the setting for better understanding its design. This work therefore acts as a development step, establishing the basis for future work.

Adoption of Energy Star certifications: theory and evidence compared

ABSTRACT Energy Star, the largest voluntary housing eco-labelling programme in the US, conveys important signals to housing market actors about the energy efficiency of homes. With energy demand from housing being a significant energy consumer and contributor to climate change, gaining insight into the diffusion patterns of these certifications is an important analytical step. Informed by theories of new product adoption, research is used to identify the factors associated with the diffusion patterns of Energy Star certifications into US single-family housing from 2002 to 2013. The findings are generally congruent with recent studies of energy-efficiency adoption patterns in commercial property (real estate) and residential building construction. The key significant predictors of variation in the proportion of Energy Star-certified homes across US core-based statistical areas (CBSAs) are found to be public policy, climate, market attributes, industry characteristics and energy prices.

Decision-Making Chains in Electrical Safety for Construction Workers

AbstractElectrocution is one of the four leading causes of worker deaths in the construction sector, and thus it is paramount to identify its mechanisms. This work interprets the mechanisms of an electrical accident as a chain of decision mistakes throughout the entire task process. The objective of this paper is to visualize the decision-making chains in workplace electrical safety for construction workers. Because of construction’s “one-off” nature, the researchers narrow the decision-making chain for specific “features of work” (FOW), a group of distinct activities possessing higher occupational safety and health (OSH) risks and requiring particular attention. By analyzing National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) electrocution reports, the authors identify five features of work and illustrate their decision-making chains. This work promotes electrical safety and injury prevention through the decision-making lens and contributes to the scholarly body of knowledge by introducing a com...