Gambo, N and Musonda, I (2021) Effect of the fourth industrial revolution on road transport asset management practice in Nigeria. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, 26(1), pp. 19-43. ISSN 1823-6499
Abstract
Poor management practices of road transport assets posed a challenge to the sustainable development of the transport system in developing countries like Nigeria. Studies in the past focused mainly on the performance of road construction process. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0IR) on the road transport assets in developing countries such as Nigeria. The current study aimed at assessing the effect of the 4.0IR towards improving the management practice of road transport assets. Survey instruments were administered to project and facility managers in the Nigerian road construction sector of the economy using a proportionate random sampling technique. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used for data analysis utilising the Warp 7.0 partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) software algorithm. The software calculates p-values with WarpPLS based on non-parametric algorithms, resampling or stable algorithms and thus does not require that the variables to be normally distributed. The study concluded that the 4.0IR drivers have a moderate effect change on the management practice of road transport assets in Nigeria at the moment. The findings imply that management of road assets in Nigeria would moderately improve due to the 4.0IR technologies resulting in transport, safety and general efficiency and effectiveness of road networks in Nigeria. The study identified the 4.0IR drivers to include robotics, mobility, virtual and augmented reality, Internet of things and cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain, three-dimensional (3D) printing drones that are built with an attached 3D printer (the drone hangs a 3D printing nozzle that has fed plastic, concrete mix or other material from a tube connected to the top of the drone's printing path that precisely plotted by software, for a promised printing accuracy of 0.1 mm) and digital engineering. This study emanated from the government reports and past studies in the area of road transport asset management practice which the study investigated the major causes of poor practices and assessed the effect of the 4.0IR on the practice.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | fourth industrial revolution; road asset; management practices; Nigeria; questionnaire survey |
| Index terms: | artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet, effectiveness, road construction, robotics, fourth industrial revolution, sampling, Nigeria, plastic, road asset, mobility, efficiency, tube, machine learning, partial least square, augmented reality, questionnaire, management practice, survey, accuracy, asset management, sustainable development, structural equation modelling, drone, 3D printing, cloud computing, data analysis, manager, developing country |
| Subjects: | infrastructure and transport systems, statistical analysis, digital infrastructure, asset management, health safety and environment, Geography, automation and robotics, infrastructure engineering, professional development, development economics, management, civil engineering, performance management, data analysis and analytics, technology adoption, artificial intelligence, visualization, materials science, computing systems, practitioner, data collection methods, manufacturing |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, International Construction, Quality Management, Digital Applications, Urban Studies |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here