Research Methods for Construction

Professor Richard Fellows, Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University Richard Fellows is Professor of Construction Business Management at Loughborough University, UK; previously, he was a Professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction, The University of Hong Kong and Professor of Culture in Construction at Glasgow Caledonian University, UK.?He graduated from the University of Aston and has worked as a quantity surveyor for several major contractors.?Richard has a PhD from the University of Reading, has taught at a number of universities in UK and other countries and was co-ordinator for research in construction management for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK.?His research interests concern economics, contracts and law, and management of people in construction - especially cultural issues as drivers of behaviour and performance.?He was a founder and for many years was joint coordinator of the CIB group, W112 - 'Culture in Construction'.?Richard has published widely in books, journals and international conferences and is qualified as a mediator. Professor Anita Liu, Department of Real Estate and Construction, University of Hong Kong Anita Liu graduated from the University of Reading.? She returned to Hong Kong to work in a quantity surveying consultancy, for the Hong Kong government, and for a major contractor before moving into academia. She obtained an MSc and a PhD from the University of Hong Kong. She has obtained many research grants from different awarding bodies, including ESRC (UK) and RGC (Hong Kong) projects and has presented papers at many international research conferences. She publishes widely in a variety of leading journals, is a regular reviewer for international journals and research awarding bodies, and is a member of several editorial boards. Anita has been chairperson of the Quantity Surveying Division of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors and a member of committees and boards in various professional institutions in China and in UK. Anita was chair professor of Commercial Management and Quantity Surveying at Loughborough University. Currently, she is Professor in the Department of Real Estate and Construction at The University of Hong Kong and joint co-coordinator of CIB W112: 'Culture in Construction'.

Preface to Third Edition viii Preface to Second Edition x Part 1 Producing a Proposal 1 1 Introduction 3 The concept of research 3 Classifications of research 7 Theories and paradigms 12 Research styles 20 Quantitative and qualitative approaches 26 Where to begin 30 Summary 32 References 32 2 Topic for Study 35 Selection of a topic 35 Writing the proposal 42 Summary 50 References 50 Part 2 Executing the Research 51 3 Initial Research 53 The research process 53 Initial search 60 Assembling the theoretical framework 66 Philosophy and methodology 67 Theoretical models and constructs 73 Proper referencing 77 Summary 77 References 78 4 Approaches to Empirical Work 81 Role of experience 81 Research design 83 Qualitative approaches 91 Quantitative approaches 97 Experimental design (including experiments and quasi-experiments) 102 Case study research 110 Modelling 114 Simulation 118 Summary 121 References 121 5 Hypotheses 125 Essentials of a valid hypothesis 125 Roles of hypotheses 129 Objective testing of hypotheses 130 Role of sampling 131 Common statistical measures 133 Null hypotheses 141 Validities 143 Summary 145 References 146 6 Data Collection 147 Data requirements 147 Collecting data from respondents 150 Sampling 159 Sample size 163 Scales of measurement 167 Obtaining data 175 Summary 183 References 183 7 Data Analysis 186 Analysing data 186 Plotting data 191 Statistical methods 194 Non-parametric tests 194 Parametric tests 202 Other analytical techniques 225 Summary 242 References 242 8 Ethics in Research 246 The concepts of morals and ethics 246 Research ethics 249 Data analysis, intellectual property and data protection 256 Summary 259 References 259 Part 3 Reporting the Results 261 9 Results, Inferences and Conclusions 263 Requirements for valid results 263 Potential sources of error 264 Reliability 265 Results 266 Inferences 270 Conclusions 276 Summary 279 References 279 10 Reports and Presentations 281 Report production 281 Communication 282 Contents of the report 284 Oral presentation 293 Summary 294 Index 295