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Judiciary plays a pivotal role in the overall development of a nation's economy and its involvement assures process transparency and impartiality. However, litigation is often expensive, uncertain and prone to delays. Notwithstanding such inherent challenges associated with litigation, it is observed that parties in construction disputes do resort to litigation. This study attempts to understand the potential paths triggering litigation of contractual disputes in construction. While extant researchers have identified focus areas or factors influencing litigation, the underlying paths connecting these focus areas, leading parties to litigation, is explored in this study.

Considering the framework of Rachlinski's “framing theory of litigation” and the mixed-methods approach (qualitative and quantitative approaches), this study proposes and validates a model that identifies the paths to litigation of contractual disputes in construction.

The results of in-depth interviews, followed by validation through structural equation modelling (SEM), reveal four critical paths, namely positional focus (PF) – contract and dispute characteristics (CDC) – decision to litigate (DTL), milieu influence (MI) – CDC – DTL, MI-PF-DTL and CDC-DTL.

The identified paths highlight the areas policymakers can consider while developing policy interventions to mitigate litigation.

Researchers have identified factors causing litigation in construction. However, attempts to examine the existence of multi-factor “paths” on the decision to litigate (DTL) have hitherto received a muted response, so this study focuses on identifying the project-level path(s) leading to the litigation of contractual disputes in construction.

The dispute resolution process in the construction industry is known for delays in settlement, with some cases even escalating to complex arbitration and litigation. To avoid conflicts turning into disputes, the parties need to be proactive in identifying and resolving conflicts in their nascent stages. It is here that innovative lean construction practices can potentially act as a game-changer to avoid disputes, and this study aims to attempt to understand this phenomenon empirically.

A questionnaire-based empirical study, followed by semi-structured interviews, is conducted to understand the relevance of key tenets of lean principles in dispute avoidance.

Although stakeholders agree on the usefulness and practicality of lean principles in dispute avoidance, the extent of agreement is lesser when it comes to its implementation practicality. Moreover, there is a demographic influence observed on lean tenets such as “open communication”, “stakeholder collaboration” and “constraint identification”.

The results point towards an approach that combines contractual mandate, training and awareness creation to iron out the differences in the usefulness and practicality of lean approaches to avoid disputes.

Lean implementation is widely discussed in many construction contexts, such as sustainability, productivity improvement and planning. However, a discussion on lean philosophy’s role in dispute avoidance is muted. Therefore, this study assumes significance.

Despite the availability of amicable means to resolve construction disputes, litigation remains a mainstream dispute resolution process in some countries. This tendency to litigate (TTL) calls for research to develop appropriate precautions to encourage stakeholders to resolve most commercial disputes through alternate dispute resolution (ADR) techniques. While a claimant's TTL arise from the individual, project and organisation preferences, this study, which can benefit both potential claimants and employers by saving time and money on litigation, identifies a bidder's financial parameters that may increase its litigation propensities, as a first step towards aiding employers to incorporate precautions to discourage such tendencies.

After the literature review, the theoretical construct proposed by Rachlinski's “framing theory of litigation” (based on Kahneman and Tversky's Prospects Theory) is used to explain organisation-level litigation decision-making. The study sources data from the financial statements of Indian construction/real estate firms, followed by panel regression analysis to test the theoretical construct's validity.

The results show that the TTL (risk-seeking behaviour) generally increases with a lower value of sales, higher assets and profitability. Interestingly, organisation-level cash flow shows an insignificant influence on litigation tendencies.

Knowing which financial parameters may increase litigation tendencies could help employers evaluate a bidder's propensity to litigate project disputes.

Researchers use financial statements to explore correlations among financial variables. However, in the construction context, there are no empirical studies with data from construction firms to understand potential litigation expenses compared to specific financial ratios.

Strong and independent judiciary symbolizes transparency and impartiality in the dispute resolution process. However, litigation is often time-consuming and affects the working relationship between the disputants. In the construction context, where projects typically have a short life span of three to four years, dispute resolution through litigation induces unaffordable process delays. Despite the inherent challenges associated with litigation, it is observed that disputing parties resort to litigation. This behavior, called the litigation dilemma, ostensibly appears counterintuitive to rational decision-making.

The study identifies 35 “decision to litigate” (DTL)-triggers from a review of the literature and court cases followed by expert interviews and groups them into thematic research domains using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA).

DTL studies in construction stands benefited through interdisciplinary research. “Presumptuous decision-making,” “construction project characteristics,” “milieu influence,” “interest in amicable resolution,” “positional focus” and “opportunism” are the six focus areas to decode the DTL in construction.

The study identifies factors that consolidate the knowledge from various fields with the substantive experience of construction professionals from across the world to help understand the dynamics behind the DTL in the context of contract-linked disputes in construction.

The findings from the domains of law, behavior, sociology and economics can help understand the above dilemma in the context of contractual disputes in construction. However, studies that explore the “decision to litigate” (DTL) contractual disputes in construction are limited, providing a vast scope for further research. The current study addresses a part of this gap.

Claims have become an inseparable part of construction projects across the world. Construction claims often tend to result not only in time and cost overruns but in case of a dispute arising from the claim, it may result in erosion of the brand value and the working relationship between the parties. Thus, construction claim prediction is important but is complicated because of a large number of dependent factors and the complex inter-relations between them. With the aid of machine learning techniques, claim tenability assessment for real estate projects in India is attempted in this paper.

In this research, artificial neural network (ANN) and decision tree models are used for assessment of claims in the Indian real estate sector using project and claims data from 275 real estate projects.

The developed ANN model assesses the claim tenability in a project with a high degree of accuracy. Both ANN and decision tree models identify that “inconsistency between drawings and specification” as the most influencing factor in claim tenability assessment.

Notwithstanding the claim tenability assessment, the model, in its current form, cannot be used to predict the “extent of claim” in the real estate projects.

Claim tenability assessment in real estate projects, especially in India, is scantily discussed in literature. This research, by adding to the body of knowledge, helps in both claim assessment and identification of factors that need to be controlled to reduce the claim tenability in real estate construction projects in India.

This paper aims to investigate whether the cyclicality of local real estate prices affects the systematic risk of local firms using a geography-based measure of land availability as a quasi-exogenous proxy for real estate price cyclicality.

This paper uses the geography-based land availability measure as a proxy for the procyclicality of real estate prices and the location of a firm’s headquarters as a proxy for the location of its real estate assets. Four-factor asset pricing model (market, size, value and momentum factors) is used to examine whether firms headquartered in more land-constrained metropolitan statistical areas have higher systematic risks.

The results show that real estate prices are more procyclical in areas with lower land availability and firms headquartered in these areas have higher systematic risk. This effect is more pronounced for firms with higher real estate holdings as a ratio of their tangible assets. Moreover, there are no abnormal returns to trading strategies based on land availability, consistent with stock market betas reflecting this local real estate factor.

This paper contributes to the literature on local asset pricing factors, the collateral role of firms’ real estate holdings and the co-movement of security prices of geographically close firms.

This paper has important managerial implications by showing that, when firms decide on the location of their buildings (e.g. headquarters building, manufacturing plant and retail outlet), the location’s influence on systematic risk should be part of the decision-making process.

This paper is among the first to use a geography-based measure of land availability to study whether the procyclicality of local real estate prices influences firm risk independent of the procyclicality of the local economy. Thus, both the portfolio formed and firm-level analyses provide a more direct evidence of the positive relation between the procyclicality of local real estate prices and firm risk.

In this paper, the author attempts to answer an important question upon founder-CEOs' exiting: How do they sell their remaining ownership shares? The literature has largely been silent on this question, and therefore is missing an important piece of the puzzle on the final stage of the founding entrepreneurs' involvement in their companies.

The author uses both theoretical models and empirical methods to examine how founder-CEOs sell their remaining ownership shares.

The author finds that founder-CEOs of high-growth firms and those with high managerial ability are more likely to sell remaining ownership shares gradually rather than suddenly. Moreover, if either the growth or the managerial ability is high, founder-CEOs managing firms with high volatility tend to sell gradually.

This paper provides insights into the final stage of founding entrepreneurs' involvement in companies. The methodology of pattern recognition also helps investors and regulators in tracking and monitoring stock trading of founders and other company insiders.

Previous studies have highlighted that overheads form a critical part of the total project cost. However, despite this knowledge, the precise estimation of overheads is often neglected in construction projects. This paper aims to examine the reasons for the lack of effort in estimation of overheads.

The study is carried out in three stages. In stage one, an introductory survey is carried to understand the importance of overheads in total project cost. In stage two, a detailed survey is carried out to understand the factors that affect the level of accuracy and compromise made in estimation of overheads using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). In the final stage, two cases are examined in form of interviews to validate the findings. The model is tested for its reliability, validity and goodness of fit.

The findings of the study suggest that the time and cost spent is a critical issue. Therefore, if the projects feel that the benefit cost ratio for time and cost spend in the process is positive, they estimate the overheads accurately, whereas if they feel that the cost benefit ratio for time and cost spend is negative, they compromise with accurate estimation. Further, there is a lot of subjectivity in defining and processing overheads that leads to a negative impact on the accuracy level in estimation of overheads. The contract type also influences the compromise in estimation.

First, there is scant work that has been carried out on understanding the behavior of overheads and reasons for lack of effort in its accurate estimation in construction projects. Therefore, there are no recent citations in the study. Further, the study being exploratory in nature draws conclusions based on opinion expressed by respondents on survey and interview. Finally, the study is geographically limited as the entire respondent's work in India.

Projects should give due attention to accurate estimation of overheads. Accurate estimation of overheads can help in better control of project margins, thereby serving the profit-maximizing goals of organizations. A conscious effort by industry experts, academicians and researchers can bring some discipline in overhead estimation rather than leaving the critical domain only to thumb rules or experiential assumptions. The regulatory bodies and the project management bodies are advised to come up with some kind of ready reference that can quickly help estimators to arrive at accurate overhead costs.

To the best of knowledge, it is a rare study to exclusively focus on project overhead cost in construction industry and focus on its estimation efforts. The study also uses a robust research process, which improves the reliability and validity of its findings.

Micro-finance self-help groups empower caregivers to indulge in productive activities based on the local availability of resources to reduce their financial burden. The purpose of this paper is to assess the need for and feasibility of initiating micro-finance groups for the caregivers of persons with mental disability in a rural socio-economically backward community of Karnataka, India.

The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey, with mixed methodology design out of the eight localities where the Mental Health Public Health Centres (PHC) were running successfully in Konandur area, Thirthahalli Taluk, Karnataka, one PHC was selected using simple Random Sampling Design and a 5 kms radius from Konandur town was selected as the area of the survey (190 households). During door-to-door survey, if the family indicated that a particular member is mentally unwell, the GHQ-5 and Symptoms and Others checklist were administered on him/her and the women caregiver was interviewed using qualitative needs assessment schedule and Perceived Social Support Scale.

Ten persons/households with mental illness (5.26 per cent) were identified in the community. Themes of financial needs, capacity of the caregiver, community resources, need for the microfinance self-help groups, informational needs, social support, burn out, and stigma elicited in the interview were depicted in the form of a conceptual framework to understand the inter-connectedness between the various themes.

This study is the first initiative in the field of micro-finance self-help groups for the persons with mental illness and families. The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey, which is found globally to be the most suited in conducting prevalence studies, as it provides accurate results for future studies as well as it is the first step to obtain accurate baseline values to later plan a prospective follow up study. The study used mixed methodology design. Though the sample size was small, the information collected from the participants in qualitative and quantitative method was triangulated and conceptual frameworks were developed. As this study is one of the first of its kind in the country, the results of this study from the stated sample can be considered as an important pilot for future longitudinal and cross-sectional studies to be planned in the community.

There is hardly any scientific literature which talks about the need for Micro-finance self-help groups for Persons with Disability, especially with person with mental disability. In order to initiate any Micro-finance SHG activities, it is essential to first undertake the need for and feasibility of initiating such micro-finance group activities in any given area. This study will be an important milestone in initiating any self-help group activity for caregivers of persons with mental disability, as it would help us understand the financial needs of the community, based on which a draft proposal to initiate micro-finance self-help group activities can be drawn up.