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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.

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.

India is a rapidly urbanizing developing country with a population of 1.4 Billion. Indian governments have invested USD 50 Billion) in metro rail projects in 18 cities. Metro constructions are multi-stakeholder mega-projects and are prone to a variety of risks. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the risks involved in metro rail construction projects in a densely populated developing country for two types of systems and from two perspectives. Current literature lacks an understanding of similarities and differences in the risks involved in underground and elevated metro projects from clients' and contractors' perspectives, which the paper highlights.

A total of twenty-five risks were identified, categorized and assessed through experts' opinions about the impact and probability of occurrence of the risks through a questionnaire-based survey. The survey respondents included experts in metro rail construction from client and contractor sides. Paper uses a Fuzzy Inference System to calibrate risk magnitude from occurrence probability and impact.

A notable difference was observed in the views of clients and contractors, except for certain common risks. Both stakeholders had different risk perceptions for the underground and elevated metro rail systems.

This study contributes to the risk assessment for different types of metro systems. This research can help policymakers as well as consultants in prioritizing their risk management strategies in developing countries like India.

Highlighting the critical aspects of risks in metro projects in a developing country, this paper also provides system-based and stakeholder-based comparative aspects of risk analysis.

Building information modelling (BIM) implementation in the design, construction and operations (DCO) industry is increasingly becoming essential. While BIM has been adopted on a larger scale in many developed economies, its acceptance is still in the embryonic phases for developing nations in the DCO industry. This study aims to identify the inhibitors to BIM implementation through the social network theoretical lens, intending to understand the associations among the barriers in the Indian context. Subsequently, recommend strategies to mitigate the barriers from the academic practitioner’s perspective.

A mixed methods research was adopted, commencing with comprehensive literature reviews to recognise various inhibitors to BIM implementation. These identified barriers were further examined through the questionnaire survey (n = 71). BIM implementation barrier network (BIBN) was created using University of California at Irvine Network (UCINET) is a powerful social network analysis software that functions on the principle of social network theory. The experts’ opinions were captured through the BIBN network through interviews. Network properties such as eigen vector centrality, betweenness centrality, degree centrality, in-degree and out-degree and clustering coefficient were computed, and the metrics were analysed further.

Twenty-six BIM implementation barriers were initially identified. A questionnaire survey was conducted. The chain reaction can be minimised by prioritising and regulating these barriers. The issues were categorised into fourfold clusters (standardisation, policy and process, cultural and human resources, change management and operational) issues were generated from the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The obstacles and barriers resulting from the other main barriers associated with it can be minimised by reducing the challenges with high eigenvector centrality but low betweenness importance.

This study proves to accelerate sustainable BIM implementation growth in developing nations; this research study assists BIM stakeholders in developing coping mechanisms to monitor and remove BIM implementation barriers.

Analysing the associativity of the BIM implementation barriers through sociograms for developing nations is a novel concept with this research.

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.

Construction safety management (CSM) has been intensively researched in the last four decades but hitherto mostly aimed at understanding root causes of accidents, recommending preventive measures and evaluating their implications. However, a systematic effort to present a comprehensive picture of construction safety research is hardly witnessed. Therefore, the study aims to investigate construction safety research contributors, ontologies, themes, evolution, emerging trends and future directions using quantitative and qualitative content analysis.

A total of 877 journal articles were extracted using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and Scopus literature database and were analyzed using VOSviewer and Nvivo tools to present a comprehensive picture of the CSM body of knowledge.

The study observed rapid growth in construction safety research with contributions from various countries, organizations and researchers. This study identified 3 research levels, 8 project phases, 10 project types, 6 research instruments and 19 research data sources along with their usage in the research domain. Further, the study identified 13 emerging research themes, 4 emerging research trends and an observed paradigm shift from reactive to proactive CSM approach.

The comprehensive study on the emerging themes and findings on proactive CSM has strategic implications to practice to incorporate safety. The identified future directions can assist researchers in bridging the existing gaps and strengthening emerging research trends.

The study presents a comprehensive picture of the CSM body of knowledge using the content analysis approach that was absent in past literature and opened future research avenues.

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.

The aim of this paper is to identify the combinations of economic, normative, reputational and cognitive mechanisms that can prevent post‐award governance challenges on build‐operate‐transfer (BOT) projects in India.

The paper uses an empirical, case‐study based methodology to collect data and analyzes the cases through the use of the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) technique. The paper first identifies and classifies the various kinds of governance challenges and preventive mechanisms in BOT projects based on the extant literature. Empirical evidence on 11 BOT projects in India is gathered and QCA is employed to unearth the linkages between specific governance mechanisms and post‐award challenges on these projects.

Project governance issues were identified across two dominant interfaces – one between the public and private sector and the other between the project and the societal stakeholders. Governance mechanisms based on providing shared incentives combined with the capacity to administer projects are effective in combating governance challenges across the public‐private sector interface. Cognitive mechanisms which make the project more accountable to the societal stakeholders are most effective across the project‐stakeholder interface.

These findings can be validated on larger data sets, across geographies, sectors and variety of PPP projects – currently the authors have only studied the BOT variant of PPPs.

The authors’ “contingency” approach to governance can help decision makers select specific governance mechanisms based on a project's structure and risk profile to better ensure successful delivery of a BOT project's objectives.

Post‐award governance of PPP projects is a theme that has received comparatively little attention in the extant literature. Further, while post‐award issues as well as governance mechanisms have been separately identified, very little work exists that links these two sets of constructs. This paper seeks to contribute to knowledge in this area by proposing some preliminary findings on the link between post‐award issues and governance mechanisms. In addition, the paper employs an innovative technique called QCA to analyze the case‐study data.