Applicability of Integrated Project Delivery Principles Based on a Measurement Model in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript needs thorough English check as well as spelling.
Needs to have clarity about highlighted text
Needs some restructuring of the article
Text corrections are needed
Manuscript Title:
Applicability of Integrated Project Delivery Principles Based on Measurement Model in China
The manuscript presented a detailed analysis and model based research with comprehensive literature review. The topic itself is interesting and engage the reader till end as all the steps from data acquisition to analysis and final conclusions were well explained. If this is the only manuscript on the presented topic than it can mark the difference, however after going through many manuscript on the same topic, this is not the case. The only difference seen in this manuscript was the cultural difference mentioned by the authors in the beginning and at the end of the manuscript. Unfortunately, this was not highlighted in relation to data set or in the results. The manuscript also needs English corrections and proof reading to be considered for further processing. The detailed review is as follows:
Detailed Review:
Abstract: The abstract is concise and clear. However, the last sentence is highlighted in the manuscript that needs English corrections.
Thus, this paper provides a scientific and methodological basis for how to effectively apply the IPD principles
The discussion talked about the respondents understanding and application of IPD but the effectiveness of application should be highlighted separately as this is one of the main objectives of the study.
“the measurement models of IPD applicability analysis on two sample levels are established, respectively.”
The manuscript text is not clear about this statement in the abstract?
Keywords: keywords needs to be words not the combination of words, Needs to be corrected in a single word format
Introduction:
The introduction is well explained and composed comprehensively to give an overview of the topic. As stated this manuscript is trying to explore two things: one is the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for the desired outcomes outlined and the second is the topic itself. The last section of introduction needs the clarification for both aspects.
Foundation of Research:
This section is clear and detailed. Scientometric analysis of the related literature about IPD principles presented the clear picture but the Author needs to identify the difference between IPD-ish and IPD. How this make a difference on results etc.
Establishment of the Conceptual Model for IPD Principles Application Analysis
This section is not clear as the conceptual model is presented like a debate so restructuring of the data is necessary for the clear presentation of the model.
Research Methodology:
The research methodology is clearly written and well defined. Some corrections are highlighted so needs the corrections accordingly.
From Last paper? Mei, T.; Guo, Z.; Li, P.; Fang, K.; Zhong, S. Influence of Integrated Project Delivery Principles on Project Performance in China: An SEM-Based Approach. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4381. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084381
The data set was checked for the feasibility of factor analysis via the KMO measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. Date is not suitable for factor analysis when the value of KMO < 0.5 [34]. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant, indicating that there is a strong correlation between variables [35]. The values of KMO were well above the minimally accepted level of 0.50, and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity indicated that the variables are interdependent (KMO = 0.939, Sig. = 0.000). All of results attest to the suitability of the data set for factor analysis.
From current paper?
“Applicability of Integrated Project Delivery Principles Based 2 on Measurement Model in China”
Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant, showing that there is a strong correlation between variables [30]. As for KMO values, they are well above the minimally accepted level of 0.50, indicating that the variables are interdependent (for the ALS, KMO = 0.939, Sig. = 0.000 whereas for the BLS, KMO = 0.907, Sig. = 0.000). Therefore, they are suitable for factor analysis.
Authors last paper and this new paper is found with similar text almost that is one of the fact needs to be checked clearly?
Mainly the validity test text.
Discussions:
The discussion part should also identify the cultural factor? Or any comparison of different cultures. How china culture particularly impacts the IPD which was embedded in the research objectives?
Or the internal relationship is due to the cultural difference?
Conclusions:
The author’s needs to do the correction as highlighted in the text.
This reference was not found electronically and if the sampling criteria is based on this that needs further elaboration.
Boomsma, A., Nonconvergence, improper solutions, and starting values in lisrel maximum likelihood 716 estimation. Psychometrika1985, 50, 229-242.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Figure 4 - Need to adjust font, some have overlap e.g. the second questionnaire survey;
Figure 4 – Why need two rounds of survey?
Figure 4 – provide full name of ALS and BLS
Figure 4 – What is the difference between the dashed line and the solid line?
Page 8/21- line 267, https://www.wjx.cn/jq/7855429.aspx - It is suggested that the contents of the survey should be translated into English and included in the appendix.
Pg 8/21- line 271, how these 15 principles been identified.
3.2.2 - most 278 practitioners may not be familiar with IPD related concepts- what is the percentage?
3.2.2 – how you categorized them into ALS and BLS? What is defined as inexperienced and what is defined as experienced? Based on no.of years or no. of IPD projects?
Why is scientometric analysis needed, why only co-occurrence of keywords? how this part link with others in your papers?
How can Figure 3 be applied to guide real IPD project.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Authors thoroughly revised the whole paper with the suggestions but still need a proof reading for English corrections. Few corrections are marked as well.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Response to reviewers’ comments No. sustainability-2067158
Dear Reviewer,
Many thanks for your kind work on our manuscript, and we should also express our sincere thanks to your invaluable comments and suggestions which make our manuscript perfect. We have revised again according to your comments on the second round. Please check the revised version and thank you again for your hard work!
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Not sure how the author addressed my first round of comments, unable to see the point-to-point responses.
Author Response
Response to reviewers’ comments No. sustainability-2067158
Dear Reviewer,
We are very sorry that we missed the point-by-point response because we are not skilled in system operation. Please understand! Some pictures can't be uploaded. Please download the attachment (Response to reviewer #2) for reference. Thank you!
Many thanks for your kind work on our manuscript, and we should also express our sincere thanks to your invaluable comments and suggestions which make our manuscript perfect. We have made a thorough revision according to your comments. Our answers are shown as follows:
Reviewer #2:
1. Figure 4 - Need to adjust font, some have overlap e.g. the second questionnaire survey.
ANSWER: Done. Thank you for your reminder. We have adjusted font to avoid the overlap. Please see line 354~355 for details.
Line 354-355:
Figure 4. Technical route.
2. Figure 4 – Why need two rounds of survey?
ANSWER: Thank you for your reminder. To solve this problem, we make the following explanation:
First, the purposes of the two questionnaires are different. The purpose of the first questionnaire is to verify that China is suitable to adapt IPD as a philosophy, while the purpose of the second questionnaire is to build two measurement models.
Second, the time of the two questionnaires was different. In fact, the second questionnaire is carried out first, and then the first questionnaire is carried out. Because in the process of writing the paper, we decided to add the section of 2.2 to further demonstrate the necessity of this study. That is to say, this paper verified that China is suitable for adopt IPD as a philosophy by supplementing the first questionnaire.
Third, from the structure of the article, we should first have foundation of research, and then build the measurement model. Therefore, the order of the questionnaires is not determined according to the time of distribution of the questionnaires, but according to the structure of the paper.
3. Figure 4 –provide full name of ALS and BLS.
ANSWER: Done. Thank you for your reminder. We have given the full names of ALS and BLS in the text. Please see line 383~387 for details.
Line 383-387:
Thus, two sample groups have been selected: the average level of sample (ALS) for those who are inexperienced and unfamiliar with IPD, the best level of sample (BLS) for those who are experience with IPD or inexperienced but informed about IPD.
4. Figure 4 –What is the difference between the dashed line and the solid line?
ANSWER: Done. Thanks for this good question. We have annotated the dashed line and solid line in Figure 4. Among them, the dashed line is the research method, while the solid line refers to the logical relationship/research steps in sequence. Please see line 354~355 (Figure 4) for details.
Line 354-355:
Figure 4. Technical route.
5. Figure 5–Page 8/21- line 267, https://www.wjx.cn/jq/7855429.aspx - It is suggested that the contents of the survey should be translated into English and included in the appendix.
ANSWER: Done. Thanks for this good question. We have translated the contents of the survey into English and included it in the appendix. Please see Appendix A (Line 1037-1068) for details.
6. Pg 8/21- line 271, how these 15 principles been identified.
ANSWER: Thanks for your kind remind. We are very sorry that due to the length of the article, we did not explicate the 15 IPD principles clearly in the article, which are mainly attributed to reference [11]. Due to the length of the article, we only inserted this reference in the article.
- NASFA; COAA; APPA; AHEFO; AGC; AIA, Integrated project delivery for public and private owners. 2010. (pp:6~7)：
7. 3.2.2 - most 278 practitioners may not be familiar with IPD related concepts- what is the percentage?
ANSWER: Thanks for this good question. The respondents involved in ALS refer to those who are inexperienced and unfamiliar with IPD, while BLS for those who are experience with IPD or inexperienced but informed about IPD. Among them, the sample size of ALS is 205, that of BLS is 105, and the total sample size is 310. Therefore, 66.13% of respondents are not be familiar with IPD related concepts.
8. 3.2.2 – how you categorized them into ALS and BLS? What is defined as inexperienced and what is defined as experienced? Based on no. of years or no. of IPD projects?
ANSWER: Thanks for this good question. To solve this problem, we make the following explanation:
First, according to the actual situation of the questionnaire filled in by the respondents, we categorized them into ALS and BLS (Please see the question 4 in Appendix A). The respondents involved in ALS refer to those who are inexperienced and unfamiliar with IPD, while BLS for those who are experience with IPD or inexperienced but informed about IPD. It is up to the respondents to determine whether they have IPD experience.
Second, the application scope of IPD principles in China is limited. (1) some IPD principles such as multi-party contract, fiscal transparency between key participants, shared financial risk and reward based on project outcome cannot be directly "borrowed", but should be used in a flexible way according to the actual situation of the project. For example, establishing a cooperative management team driven by the owner, adopting multi-party agreements, and developing an appropriate incentive compensation mechanism (such as incentive pool). (2) large and complex projects in China are currently dominated by state-owned investment. Compared with private projects, the driving force for owners to use IPD is relatively weak. (3) although IPD is not widely used in most projects in China, a few projects have successfully applied IPD-ish, and the application effect is proved very good.
Third, due to the limited application scope of IPD principles in China and the fact that they have not been popularized on a large scale, this paper does not divide the IPD experience of respondents based on no. of years or no. of IPD projects. However, as the application of IPD principles becomes extensive, subsequent studies can consider to define as inexperienced and experienced of respondents based on no. of years or no. of IPD projects.
Fourth, IPD principles, such as early involvement of participants, BIM, mutual respect and trust, willingness to collaborate, and open communication have been applied in other traditional delivery models in practical projects. To be more in line with the actual situation, this paper will not exclude ALS.
9. Why is scientometric analysis needed, why only co-occurrence of keywords? how this part link with others in your papers?
ANSWER: Thanks for this good question. To solve this problem, we make the following explanation:
First, the scientometric analysis is to demonstrate the necessity of research the applicability analysis of IPD principles by using quantitative analysis.
Second, the use of keywords is because there are too few literature directly related to the subject, which is not conducive to analysis. Therefore, "integrated project delivery principles" and "IPD principles" are directly used as the theme words for scientometric analysis.
Third, the scientometric analysis of relevant literature is mainly a supplementary demonstration of the feasibility of the study. We believed that the result of co-occurrence of keyword has been able to achieve the research purpose. Therefore, although more analysis can be done, we only show the results of co-occurrence of keyword.
Fourth, as shown in Figure 4, the scientometric analysis is only a part of the research foundation to demonstrate the necessity of application analysis of IPD principles. The results of this part pave the way for the analysis of the application status of IPD principles in China.
10. How can Figure 3 be applied to guide real IPD project.
ANSWER: Thanks for this good question. To solve this problem, we make the following explanation:
Figure 2 explains the difference between a real IPD project and an IPD-ish project. Figure 3 is a conceptual model based on literature. The modified measurement model in Figure 5 is to verify the conceptual model in Figure 3. In contrast, the analysis results in Figure 5 are more instructive to the actual project.
It is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the order of importance of each IPD principle in each category can be determined based on the loading factor of measurement model, and then the principles with higher importance can be used preferentially in practical projects; second, the correlation coefficient between each category of IPD principle and project performance and other categories of IPD principles is used to understand the degree of correlation, and then it is demonstrated that these principles need to be combined in practical projects.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 2 Report
The author answered most of my questions. However, the authors should consider adding a paragraph discussing how this research will guide practical projects to implement IPD.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Many thanks for your kind work on our manuscript, and we should also express our sincere thanks to your invaluable comments and suggestions which make our manuscript perfect. We have made a thorough revision according to your comments of round 3. Our answers are shown as follows:
Reviewer #2:
1. The author answered most of my questions. However, the authors should consider adding a paragraph discussing how this research will guide practical projects to implement IPD.
ANSWER: Done. Thank you for your good suggestion. We have added a paragraph to discuss how this research will guide practical projects to implement IPD. Please see line 735~750 for details.
Line 735-750:
As we are mainly concerned about the applicability of IPD principles, the discussion mainly involves the qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of the application of IPD principles, aiming to how guide practical projects to implement IPD. It is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the order of importance of each IPD principle in each category can be determined based on the loading factor of measurement model, and then the principles with higher importance can be used preferentially in practical projects; second, the correlation coefficient between each category of IPD principle and project performance and other categories of IPD principles is used to understand the degree of correlation, and then it is demonstrated that these principles need to be combined in practical projects. According to Figure 4, the application status and the effect of IPD principles will vary due to the presence of different users. The detailed discussion is as follows：
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
