Tracy N.Y. Choi

An empirical survey of the benefits of implementing pay for safety scheme (PFSS) in the Hong Kong construction industry

INTRODUCTION The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) has implemented different safety initiatives to improve the safety performance of the construction industry over the past decades. The Pay for Safety Scheme (PFSS), which is one of the effective safety measures launched by the government in 1996, has been widely adopted in the public works contracts. Both the accident rate and fatality rate of public sector projects have decreased noticeably over this period. METHOD This paper aims to review the current state of application of PFSS in Hong Kong, and attempts to identify and analyze the perceived benefits of PFSS in construction via an industry-wide empirical questionnaire survey. A total of 145 project participants who have gained abundant hands-on experience with the PFSS construction projects were requested to complete a survey questionnaire to indicate the relative importance of those benefits identified in relation to PFSS. The perceived benefits were measured and ranked from the perspectives of the client and contractor for crosscomparison. RESULTS The survey findings suggested the most significant benefits derived from adopting PFSS were: (a) Increased safety training; (b) Enhanced safety awareness; (c) Encouragement of developing safety management system; and (d) Improved safety commitment. A wider application of PFSS should be advocated so as to achieve better safety performance within the construction industry. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY It is recommended that a similar scheme to the PFSS currently adopted in Hong Kong may be developed for implementation in other regions or countries for international comparisons.

Determinants of efficiency of contractors in Hong Kong and China : panel data model analysis

AbstractThis study investigates how firm attributes affect construction contractors’ efficiency in Hong Kong and Mainland China, from the period 2004 to 2010. This study finds that the efficiency of Hong Kong contractors is associated with their managerial capability to control business costs and financial capability to manage both short-term and long-term capital liquidity. The efficiency of Mainland China contractors is also associated with their managerial capability to control business and administrative costs but not with their financial capability to maintain capital liquidity. Theoretically, this study shows that managerial and technological abilities are two common factors that transcend different institutions and systems. Hong Kong is the freest economy in the world, whereas the economy of Mainland China is more regulated. Methodologically, data envelopment analysis is adopted to establish the efficiency scores of contractors to be analyzed by panel data regression, which controls individual cont...

Comparing China Mainland and China Hong Kong contractors' productive efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to present and compare the productive efficiency of China Mainland and China Hong Kong contractors, and to identify and investigate the components and sources of their efficiency under different economic and institutional environments.Design/methodology/approach – Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non‐parametric approach to examine the relative efficiency among different firms. This study employs DEA based Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to compile the efficiency scores of 20 construction companies listed in the Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Limited (HKEx) from 2004 to 2010.Findings – A decomposition of MPI suggests that catch‐up effect has contributed more to contractors efficiency than frontier‐shift effect. Compared to their Mainland counterparts, Hong Kong contractors have higher MPI mainly due to higher efficiency scores in catch‐up effect.Practical implications – Hong Kong contractors have advantage over Mainland contractors in their managerial and str...

Evaluating construction contractors' efficiency in Hong Kong using Data Envelopment Analysis Assurance Region model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a few leading Hong Kong construction firms are also efficient contractors. Theoretically, market leaders can exploit the virtue of economy of scale, learning curve and cost leadership to consolidate their competitiveness. However, if market share is key success factor for firms to become and stay competitive, smaller contractors will be further marginalized if the construction market continues to shrink as Hong Kongs economy approaches maturity. Hence the research question is: Have a few leading contractors been taking advantage of their market size to be efficient in Hong Kong?Design/methodology/approach – Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis Assurance Region (DEA_AR) model, the efficiency scores of 17 major Hong Kong contractors are compiled over the last ten years. DEA is a non‐parametric approach to examine the relative efficiency among different firms, in terms of output/input ratios. Unlike traditional I‐O analysis which relies on a st...

Measuring carbon emission from energy consumption in a Hong Kong family

Purpose – This study aims to develop a prototype for measuring the carbon emissions arising from the utilization of electrical appliances in a typical Hong Kong family in Kowloon District. Design/methodology/approach – To estimate carbon emission coefficients of energy consumption, the US building energy database books are referred to, which include home appliances’ energy end-use expenditure splits and energy end-use carbon splits. Due to differences in climate, geography and culture, the estimation equations are refined with assumptions and constraints based on the context of Hong Kong. Findings – By calculating the amount of carbon emissions from different electrical appliances, including space cooling, water heating, lighting, refrigeration, wet cleaning and cooking, it is estimated that the carbon emissions from major home electrical appliances in Hong Kong’s residential building sector is 1,805,397 metric tons. According to the findings of this study, by adopting the energy-saving guidelines for spa...

Critical analysis of the application of the Safe Working Cycle (SWC): Interview findings from Hong Kong

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of the safe working cycle (SWC) in improving existing site safety performance of construction projects in Hong Kong and to identify the perceived benefits, potential difficulties and insightful recommendations of implementing the SWC in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The professional views on the effectiveness of implementing the SWC, the benefits and difficulties of the SWC, together with the effective recommendations for future execution of the SWC, were gleaned by ten in-depth interviews involving the representatives of senior professional staff members from major construction companies and related government works departments. Findings – Responses from in-depth interviews indicated that the SWC is generally effective in improving site safety performance and preventing the occurrence of construction accidents. The implementation of the SWC is also found useful in facilitating safety-related communications, enhancing safety awareness ...

Accidents of Electrical and Mechanical Works for Public Sector Projects in Hong Kong

A study on electrical and mechanical (E&M) works-related accidents for public sector projects provided the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the causes of accidents by analyzing the circumstances of all E&M works accidents. The research aims to examine accidents of E&M works which happened in public sector projects. A total of 421 E&M works-related accidents in the “Public Works Programme Construction Site Safety and Environmental Statistics” (PCSES) system were extracted for analysis. Two-step cluster analysis was conducted to classify the E&M accidents into different groups. The results identified three E&M accidents groups: (1) electricians with over 15 years of experience were prone to ‘fall of person from height’; (2) electricians with zero to five years of experience were prone to ‘slip, trip or fall on same level’; (3) air-conditioning workers with zero to five years of experience were prone to multiple types of accidents. Practical measures were recommended for each specific cluster group to avoid recurrence of similar accidents. The accident analysis would be vital for industry practitioners to enhance the safety performance of public sector projects. This study contributes to filling the knowledge gap of how and why E&M accidents occur and promulgating preventive measures for E&M accidents which have been under researched.