ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY
College of Business and Economics
School of Commerce
Article Review: Cost Overruns in Public Construction
Projects: The Case of Jordan
An Article Review Submitted to Addis Ababa University
Department of Project Management
For the Course of Project Cost Management
Submitted to Dr Adane Atara
Addis Ababa
January 6th, 2022
DECLARATION
This Article Review has been submitted for examination for the course of Project Cost
Management to:
Dr Adane Atara
ARTICLE REVIEW
Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The
Case of Jordan
by
Ghaleb J. Sweis, Rateb Sweis, Malek Abu Rumman, Ruba Abu
Hussein, Samer E. Dahiyat
Uploaded to www.jofamericanscience.org
No of Pages, 09
Uploaded in Feb 28th, 2015
Article Reviewed by:
Name
ID
Section
1. Eyerus Bekele
-GSE/0005/13
02
2. Elda Haddis
-GSE/1747/13
02
3. Ermias Mesafint
- GSE/5127/13
02
4. Ephrem Girma
- GSE/1191/13
02
5. Etsub Mengistu
- GSE/9131/13
02
January 6th, 2022
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................1
2. Abstract ................................................................................................................1
3. Problem Statement ...............................................................................................1
4. Research objectives .............................................................................................2
4.1
General objective ...........................................................................................2
4.2 Specific objectives ............................................................................................2
5. Methodology ........................................................................................................2
6. Review of the related literature ...........................................................................3
6.1 Critical evaluation of theoretical literature .......................................................3
6.1.1 Introduction.................................... Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
6.1.2 Literature review ............................ Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
6.1.3 Critical Evaluation on Theoretical LiteratureОшибка!
Закладка
не
определена.
6.2 Critical Evaluation of Empirical Literature ......................................................3
6.2.1 Introduction.................................... Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
6.2.2 Literature Review .......................... Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
6.3 Critical Evaluation on Theoretical Literature .................................................3
7. Research Methodology ........................... Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
8. Data presentation, Analysis And interpretation...................................................3
9. Discussion of Findings ........................................................................................4
9.1 conclusion .........................................................................................................4
9.2 Reflections ........................................................................................................4
Article Review: Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The Case of Jordan
1. Introduction
Delays in construction projects, cost overruns, and low quality have long been common problems
in the construction and engineering sector(Larsen et al., 2016). In particular, time and cost
increases in large public construction projects seem to be a global phenomenon, with no reduction
in the last 70 years and an average cost overrun of 28% (Flyvbjerg et al. 2002, 2003). The research
article entitled “Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The Case of Jordan” tried to
analyze the factors that cause cost overruns. The article integrated different related literatures to
support the study. The methodology used to conduct the study is composed of primary and
secondary data. Data collected through primary and secondary methods was analyzed through a
five-point Likert scale. The study then finalized the article through conclusions and
recommendations
2. Abstract
The research tried to briefly describe the general concept and ideology of the paper in the abstract.
It briefly described the major title of the paper. After that it dived into the major concept that the
researchers are trying to study which is cost overruns in public construction projects. The abstract
described, in detailed manner, how the study is conducted and what it’s contribution is for future
research, the methodology of data collection; which is composed of primary data collection
method through questionnaires dispersed to 30 engineers and secondary method of data collection
from related literatures. It also describes briefly the result and findings of the research. Most
researchers look for an abstract that is within the range of 150-300 words. Hence, it can be
classified as a good quality abstract since the abstract in this article is composed of 192 words.
3. Problem Statement
The study tried to describe the major problem that is to be tackled in the introduction part which
is causes of cost overrun in public construction projects. Although there is no dedicated section for
the problem statement, the study briefly describes what it tries to study and analyze in the
introduction as well as in the abstract. It can clearly be seen in the literature review that the scope
is limited to causes of cost overruns and the study specifically chose the case of Jordan city as a
study source. The research question is clearly defined and specific with no ambiguity. The study
tried to specifically answer the question “What are the causes of causes of cost overruns in public
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Article review: Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The Case of Jordan
construction projects”. It is understandable and has a clear definition to it and is articulated in such
a way that the reader will not have a hard time understanding it.
4. Research objectives
4.1 General objective
The general objective of the study is to understand the causes of cost overruns in public
construction projects. As previously stated the researcher did not explicitly have a subsection
explicitly dedicated for this section but it can be seen from the article that the general objective of
the research is clearly provided.
4.2 Specific objectives
The specific objective of the research are as follows
a. To identify the major factors that cause cost overruns in public construction projects by
taking the case of Jordan city
b. To understand these factors so that future problems can be mitigated.
The research provided adequate data from previous literatures as well as survey questionnaire data
to back up the objectives.
5. Methodology
The writers tried to address and explicitly tell the readers the methodology of the research paper.
They clearly told where they found and identified the major causes of cost overruns, which is
through literature reviews, so the reader can access these literatures for further study. The
methodologies involving data collection were also clearly identified as well. They clearly specified
where the primary data as well as where the secondary data lies. The readers of this article will not
have a hard time in trying to understand the methodology used. Primary and secondary data were
collected according to the article. The primary data was collected by distributing questionnaires to
30 randomly selected engineers at the ministry of public works and housing and the Association
of Construction Contractors. The methodology section also describes how the data collected
through primary and secondary data was analyzed and ranked. So, the methodology section can
be seen as an abstract for the data analysis and discussion section. The methodology section also
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Article review: Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The Case of Jordan
describes what the analytical methods, such as Factor analysis and Principal Component analysis,
are so the reader of the article can have a brief understanding of the analytical methods of
computation.
The methods of sampling techniques were not specified and the article or the writers did not exility
show what type of data sampling techniques were used. So, it becomes difficult to understand if
the data collected is biased or not.
The writers also did not justify and describe the research design techniques. They simply delved
into the way the primary and secondary data are collected and analyzed and there is no detailed
description of how the research is designed, no detailed description of what the research aims to
find.
Overall, the methodology section has a detailed description of the methods used to describe the
article so that any reader or future research worker will understand the article. However the section
also have major drawbacks stated above.
6. Review of the related literature
6.1 Critical evaluation of theoretical literature
A literature review can be challenging to write because it should not be a source-by-source
summary, but instead it should synthesize or bring multiple sources together. Each paragraph
within a literature review should contain at least two sources that speak to the same factor.
The literature review section is detailed and consists of concepts and theories from different
literature. The concepts described in the literature review section have a direct relation to the
objective the writers wanted to show in the article. The writers of the article cited 16 different
sources and articles which they deem have a direct relation to their article and
6.2 Critical Evaluation of Empirical Literature
6.3 Critical Evaluation on Theoretical Literature
7. Data presentation, Analysis And interpretation
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Article review: Cost Overruns in Public Construction Projects: The Case of Jordan
8. Discussion of Findings
9.1 conclusion
9.2 Reflections
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