This paper examines the individual firm's motivation to adopt innovation in a construction project, and the inter-organizational interactions of relevant parties involved in innovation. Based on the theory of organizational motivation and inter-organizational relationships, seven hypotheses are set out. These hypotheses are tested using a structured questionnaire, and data were collected via a postal survey. From the results, it is concluded that an innovative proposal may be successfully implemented in the project if effort is put into carrying the innovation through, and there are high expected goals, favourable,results and high commitment. Firms need to be motivated to adopt the innovation, be optimistic about the results and exert additional effort. Incentives for the supporting parties need to be substantial to persuade them to participate in the innovation. In addition, the innovation should be designed such that it could draw all upstream and downstream parties together, and all their interests are looked after in the project.Construction Innovation, Organizational Motivation, Inter-organizational Interaction, Origin Organization, Support Organization,

Learning is the competitive advantage of an organization, but adverse organizational settings tend to nullify and even oppose learning processes. The Nepalese construction sector is suffering from such adverse settings. In this article, organizational behavioral (OB) settings have been analysed with system dynamics methodology in order to find the causes of adversity. Dominating positive feedback loops (vicious cycles) with OB variables are explored as the underlying structures causing the adversity. Through simulation experiments, it has been observed that intuitive individual policy measures are rather ineffective in reforming the organizational settings. Numerous model experiments revealed that the public sector needs a proactive management effort, along with a value reformation policy to reverse the adverse direction of the dominating vicious cycles, while the private sector needs to equip itself with proactive culture and entrepreneurial values supported by favorable government policies providing spacious domain for the companies to play their role. This directional policy framework has been observed to be promising in the long run. However, to corroborate the directional policy framework, operational policies are recommended for further study in order to actualize the operational steps. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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While there is a general agreement that the use of public transportation should be encouraged, it has also been reported that the willingness and tendency to use the public transportation is dominated by the propensity of private car use. Consequently, the persistent increase in the modal share of private car has been a matter of concern in the context of growing cities. This research starts with the understanding that the entire state of the modal share in a city would be the collective reflection of the mode choice behaviour of individuals who populate the large population mass in the city. A causal feedback loop model is developed to study the individual mode choice behaviour in the context of a city. The model is then translated into a system dynamics simulation model. The context of Dubai has been considered in order to operationalise the simulation model. The simulation experiments revealed that it would be challenging to motivate individuals in using the public transportation in the city where private car has already been a dominant mode. It is also found that the very desire of individuals to own and use private car is one of the key points that should be addressed properly if the mode choice is to be influenced.

This paper addresses a research question on why construction companies fail in their business. Starting with the concept of growth and capacity underinvestment archetype, a new and operational systems thinking model is developed. The conceptual systems thinking model includes a set of causal structure that can explain various modes (including the growth and failure modes) of business performance of small and medium construction companies. Mainly the three componentsprojects, finance and capacityand the understanding of their nexus (or causal interrelationships) are found to be sufficient to reveal different performance modes in construction business. Further, the three operational aspects, namely, the business growth or decline process; the situation of financial and other capacity resource consumption; and the management of projects, finance and other capacity resources have been identified as the interrelated core and integral aspects of construction business. The three interrelated core aspects could actually include and explain different possible range of business situations, policies and practices in a construction company.