Li-Yin Shen’s research while affiliated with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and other places

Competitiveness is an important concept to contactors due to fierce competition in the construction industry. In order to outperform their competitors in the market, contractors are keen to realize their competitiveness by measuring it for benchmarking and improvement purposes. That is the reason why competitiveness for construction has been an active research topic. Yet, little has been done in addressing the methods to improve competitiveness in the construction field. Previous studies have proved that networking is an effective tool for gaining competitive advantage over competitors. It is therefore important to gain a clearer understanding of the effect of contractors' networking to their competitiveness in the construction industry. This paper focuses on the ways of enhancing contractors' competitiveness in the networking perspective. A research model was developed in this study and the relationships between contractors' network performance and their success of competitiveness were examined by the use of multiple regression analyses. The findings show that contractors' networking techniques are related to certain outcomes which in turn stimulate the level of competitiveness. In particular, the techniques of supporting information exchange and organizing project communication stood out to be the highly significant predictors of competitiveness attributes.

The construction industry is recognized as being project-based and is fragmented in nature. Problems such as poor communication, mistrust, lack of cohesion, and adversarial relationships among project stakeholders are often found in construction projects. Previous studies have explored the formation of successful interfirm networks in construction and investigated how to solve the aforementioned problems by means of a networking approach. It is therefore important to gain a clearer understanding of whether such a built network is effective and can contribute to construction management. Investigation of parameters for measuring the performance of interfirm networks has attracted the interest of many researchers and practitioners in industry and business fields. However, seldom has similar research been conducted in the field of construction management. This paper presents key parameters for measuring networking performance within the construction context. Five parameters are applied in the formation of the measurement model, including information exchange between project members, project communication system, knowledge-sharing for collaboration, corporate culture for promoting networking, and learning capability in intra- and inter-organizational settings. The empirical results of this study enable contractors to realize what items determine the performance of interfirm networks, and what aspects of construction management practices should be emphasized to improve the networking performance effectively. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.

In co-ionic conducting solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), both oxygen ion (O2-) and proton (H+) can transport through the electrolyte, generating steam in both the anode and cathode. Thus the mass transport phenomenon in the electrodes is quite different from that in conventional SOFC with oxygen ion conducting electrolyte (O-SOFC) or with proton conducting electrolyte (H-SOFC). The generation of steam in both electrodes also affects the concentration overpotential loss and further the SOFC performance. However, no detailed modeling study on SOFCs with co-ionic electrolyte has been reported yet. In this paper, a new mathematical model for SOFC based on co-ionic electrolyte was developed to predict its actual performance considering three major kinds of overpotentials. Ohm’s law and the Butler-Volmer formula were used to model the ion conduction and electrochemical reactions, respectively. The dusty gas model (DGM) was employed to simulate the mass transport processes in the porous electrodes. Parametric simulations were performed to investigate the effects of proton transfer number (t H) and current density (j total) on the cell performance. It is interesting to find that the co-ionic conducting SOFC could perform better than O-SOFC and H-SOFC by choosing an appropriate proton transfer number. In addition, the co-ionic SOFC shows smaller difference between the anode and cathode concentration overpotentials than O-SOFC and H-SOFC at certain t H values. The results could help material selection for enhancing SOFC performance.

Construction and demolition (C&D) waste is becoming a major contributor to environmental pollution. In Shanghai, China, the quantity of C&D waste is 2.11E+07 t/yr, which accounts for 45% of the total quantity of solid waste. There has been a growing promotion of recycling C&D waste as an effective way to solve this waste problem. However, the evaluation of the efficiency of recycling C&D waste as a potential source of resources is largely based on traditional economic analysis. The economic analysis emphasizes money instead of the harmony between economic benefit and environmental effects. There is a need for a new strategic approach to investigate the efficiency of recycling C&D waste to achieve the integration between economic, social and environmental effects. Emergy theory can be employed to analyze different recycling options for C&D waste. With reference to the Chinese construction industry, this paper demonstrates that the close-loop recycling option is better than the open-loop recycling option for C&D waste in terms of the integration of social, environmental and sustainable aspects. To evaluate different technology solutions for C&D waste recycling, the emergy theory and method is not limited to a cost-benefit balance but can include economic, social, environmental and sustainable effects.

Urban population has been increasing and it is estimated to reach 70% of the total population in the world by 2050. Governments are facing greater challenges every time in providing inhabitants with a good quality of life in their cities. Many cities around the world have developed sustainable urban development plans for leading their urbanization process towards a desired status of urban sustainability. Urban sustainability indicators have been selected as main elements for communicating the status of the practice, which help to determine how successful strategies and policies enforced have been in the attainment of sustainability goals. Different practices use different indicators according to their particular needs, and these have been selected under different methods. However, whilst there are cases where urban sustainability indicators are effectively in use, the experiences gained from each practice have not been shared and used for the development of new urban development plans and for improving the decision-making process in the selection of indicators. This paper examines 9 different practices and proposes a comparative basis, namely, International Urban Sustainability Indicators List (IUSIL), for allowing the better understanding of drivers and goals of each practice and identifying under what circumstances various practices selected their indicators. Discussions made on the comparative analysis are categorized in four different dimensions: environmental, economic, social and governance. Research results show how comparative basis can lead to knowledge sharing between different practices, which can be used to guide the selection of indicators of sustainable urbanization plans and improve the effective communication of the status of practices. The study not only reveals how different indicators are selected but also suggests the need for consistent processes of choosing indicators based on the benchmarks obtained from best practices.

Project buyout management is essential for the transition from the preconstruction to the construction phase. It is during this period that the project team is formed; subcontractors are finalized; the orders of material and equipment are placed; and project plans are made. Despite its importance, few studies have been conducted in this field, especially for international contractors who face many complex situations in project buyout. This paper presents the study conducted for the project buyout management for the Chinese International Contractors (CICs) in developing countries, with focus on the project buyout management under different overseas management structures, and the key influencing factors. It discusses the characteristics of CICs in developing countries; investigates the project buyout management under different overseas management structures; analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each overseas management structure to project buyout, and identifies the major project buyout influencing factors. The results of this research will benefit both the industry practitioners and the academic researchers in this area.

This paper presents to evaluate construction and demolition waste's recycling by integrating economical, social, and environmental aspects. Traditional cost-benefit analysis for recycling wastes based on money does not consider social, environmental benefits. Making recycling trajectories choices that are ecologically conscious requires Emergy analysis of both economic and environmental impacts. This paper sums up success and shortage of using Emergy theory to evaluate solid wastes recycling from four aspects including system boundary, system structure, evaluating indices and Emergy method characteristic. An new Emergy evaluation indices for valuing construction and demolition wastes recycling is presented.

There is an increasing complexity and interplay between all of the issues associated with property portfolio decisions. This paper explores the relationships between financial, environmental and social parameters associated with building adaptive reuse by way of a case study. A new model predicting adaptive reuse potential is applied to a heritage building in Hong Kong known as Lui Seng Chun. Such application can assist in the transformation of the building and property industry towards more sustainable practices, strategies and outcomes, by providing a means by which the industry can identify and rank existing buildings that have high potential for adaptive reuse. In Hong Kong's case it provides an ability for sustainable, responsive energy and natural resource management by allowing issues regarding excessive and inappropriate resource use to be identified and assessed, and appropriate management strategies to be implemented. Given the building's current age and condition, Lui Seng Chun has at least 25 years of physical life remaining. The further application of a multi‐criteria sustainability evaluation tool supports the conclusion that an adaptive reuse strategy for this building will make a demonstrable contribution to the economic, social and environmental amenity of Hong Kong. The application of these techniques to other buildings with significant “embedded physical life” is highly recommended. Potencialaus naudojimo modelio taikymas Honkonge: Lui Seng Chun atvejo tyrimas Santrauka Priimant sprendimus dėl nuosavybes portfelio, kyla vis sudėtingesnių ir tarpusavyje labiau susijusiu klausimu. Šiame darbe nagrinėjami ryšiai tarp finansiniu, aplinkos ir socialiniu parametru, susijusiu su pastatu naudojimu. Naujas modelis, numatantis potencialu pastatu naudojimą, taikomas Honkonge esančiam paveldo pastatui, vadinamam Lui Seng Chun. Transformuojant pastatu ir nuosavybes industrija, kai siekiama darnesniu praktikos, strategijų ir rezultatu, šis modelis gali būti naudingas, nes suteiks priemonių, padėsiančių identifikuoti ir klasifikuoti tuos pastatus, kuriu naudojimo potencialas didelis. Honkongo atveju tai galimybe imtis darnaus, atsakingo energijos ir gamtiniu išteklių valdymo, nes galima nustatyti ir įvertinti besaikio bei netinkamo išteklių naudojimo problemas ir įdiegti reikiamas vadybos strategijas. Atsižvelgiant į pastato amžių ir būkle, Lui Seng Chunfiziškai dar gali gyvuoti bent 25 metus. Toliau naudojamas daugiakriterinio darnos vertinimo įrankis patvirtina išvada, kad naudojimo strategija šiame pastate nemenkai prisidės prie viso Honkongo ekonominio, socialinio ir aplinkos patrauklumo. Rekomenduojama taikyti šiuos metodus kitiems pastatams valdyti, kuriu likusi naudojimo trukme dar yra netrumpa. First published online: 18 Oct 2010