Case Study Research Design: Cloud Computing in Construction Industry

This report investigates the transformative potential of cloud computing within the construction industry. Employing a case study research design, the study aims to analyze how cloud technology reshapes construction practices and impacts stakeholders. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, including case studies, observations, interviews, questionnaires, and focus groups, to gather comprehensive data on technology adoption, cost implications, and stakeholder perspectives. Case studies will evaluate changes in house prices and management styles over the past decade, while interviews will explore real-world scenarios and price quotations. Questionnaires target site engineers, designers, and tenants, and focus groups facilitate open discussions. The study seeks to determine the benefits and implications of cloud computing, assess stakeholder support, and identify areas for improvement. Data collection methods include analysis of house prices, observation of construction sites, interviews with renters, questionnaires for various stakeholders, and focus groups to gather diverse perspectives. The report also addresses the reliability of the data sources and provides a comprehensive bibliography.

Cloud computing and construction
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Research Design
Case study designs involving comparative analysis would be used to analyze the future of
the construction industry due to effects manifested by cloud computing. In order to be able to
come up with quality data which can facilitate sound decision making, case studies and
combined strategies would be used. In this regard, several case studies would be employed to
make it possible to analyze the actual trend of technological adoption in the construction industry
(Gangwar, Date & Ramaswamy 2015, p. 116). The analysis of the case study would be done
qualitatively by comparing what different scenarios have presented in each case. Several case
studies from different parts would be used so that it is possible to deduce meaningful conclusion.
Each case study would be analyzed intensively to be able to get all cloud technology
requirements in the construction industry. Similarly, each case study would be used in deducing
a general feeling of all stakeholders in the construction industry (Chong, Wong & Wang 2014, p.
158). The overall concept would be based on one major case study which would later be
compared with other related cases studies. Through inter-case analysis, it would be able to come
up with weakness and strengths presented in each case study. Important to note is that research
involves a number of methods which at some instances they help bring out concepts that are not
realizable from other methods.

Research questions
Main Question
How will the future of construction industry be transformed by cloud computing?
Sub Questions
 Is there any need of cloud computing technology in the industry?
 Who is the beneficiary of technology in the industry?
 What are the implications of cloud computing in the industry?
 Is cloud computing supported by all stakeholders in the industry?
Data collection methods
There are several methods which can be used to collect data during research study. In this
case, the most suitable methods of data collection are; case studies which would be majorly
based on evaluating the change of house prices as well as management of housing facilities over
the past decade (Kumar, Cheng & McGibbney 2010, p. 315). In this regard, case study would be
used to analyze how cloud computing has affected construction industry, the cost implication as
a result of adopting technology as well as anticipated changes. Similarly, it would be possible to
analyze to which extend does cloud computing have bearing on current house prices. The house
prices has been increasing over time and it would be important to investigate if technology has
contributed to price changes by analyzing the cases from when it was first adopted. On the other
hand, observation would be used to analyze the real life situation on factors affecting cost of
housing and management styles (Rawai, Fathi, Abedi & Rambat 2013, p. 432). There are several
cases that discusses the rate of technology implementation in construction industry, the cost
involved in use of technology in construction industry and the value it adds on the entire

construction process. Through use of case study, actual data can be collected for representation
purpose. Once an analysis has been done, it would be possible to deduce if the is any observable
advantage of adopting technology into the industry. Some of the questions which would be used
to guide study are; is there successful implementation of technology in construction industry?
Does it have benefits in the entire construction process?
The next method of data collection to be used would be on interviews. This would be
done by trying to look for renting facilities with aim of trying to get the real life scenario from
house owners. This would help provide actual house prices as well as get required responses on
price quotations provided by land lords. Such prices would be analyzed to determine if there are
values associated with technology adoption in the entire process (Chuang, Lee & Wu, 2011, p.
145). If prices has factored technology, what percentage of price can it be valued as technology
related? A comparison would be done from respondents who have and those without experience
on implementation of cloud computing from construction stage to maintenance stage. With
technology implementation, is there any difference between traditional process and current
technology empowered processes? Does it benefit house owners or tenants? Additionally,
questionnaires would be used to evaluate on the nature and processes that require technology in
construction processes (Redmond, Hore, Alshawi & West 2012, p. 176). The target respondent
would be site engineers, designers, land owners and tenants. Given to respondents through mails,
hard copies or text messages over the mobile phones. Through questionnaires, it would be
possible to evaluate the need of incorporating cloud computing in the industry as well as changes
it has on cost of construction. It would be important to specify on whether cloud computing
adoption in construction industry has made construction process easier. On the same note, in
cases where respondents support adoption of technology in construction industry, they would be

requested to provide areas of improvement that need to be absorbed to eliminate waste and
increase operational efficiency (Armbrust et al. 2010, p. 56). Questionnaire would have some of
these questions; is the need of technology in construction industry? Is it add or lower cost of
construction? Is there any long term goal of implementing technology in the industry? Who pays
the cost of running technology in the industry? Are there implication of adopting technology?
Moreover, focus groups is very important method of data collection because it would
bring different group of respondent together and exchange ideas in an open space. The groups
that would be part of the group include; tenants who would provide with useful information on
the cost of rentals compared to their standards and maintenance. Data collected from tenants
would be divided into two phases (Yu, Wang, Ren & Lou 2010, p. 6-7). The first set would be
from tenants living on houses maintained through cloud computing and the second set would be
those tenants living in facilities maintained in a traditional manner. It is from the focus group
where cross-examination of ideas would be done to evaluate on which party should bear
technology adoption costs by considering the beneficiary of such undertaking. Important to note
is that, it is from the same focus group that importance of adopting technology in construction
processes would be deliberated on its value in the entire processes. Some of the questions which
would be addressed are; is technology important in construction industry? Who benefits from the
technology? Does technology incorporation in construction industry have implications on rental
costs? Finally, observation as a method of data collection would be used to learn group reactions
of the points raised by other participants (Tehrani & Shirazi 2014, p.638). Through observation
and analysis of the data and reactions, it would be possible to determine if really technology has
been embraced by all players in the same industry. If it has not been embraced, what makes some
stakeholders feel it is not important to have technology in the industry? To those who have never

adopted cloud computing, what factors have made it difficult to incorporate technology into
business processes?
Bibliography
Armbrust, M., Fox, A., Griffith, R., Joseph, A.D., Katz, R., Konwinski, A., Lee, G., Patterson,
D., Rabkin, A., Stoica, I. and Zaharia, M., 2010. A view of cloud computing. Communications of
the ACM, 53(4), pp.50-58.
Chong, H.Y., Wong, J.S. and Wang, X., 2014. An explanatory case study on cloud computing
applications in the built environment. Automation in construction, 44, pp.152-162.
Chuang, T.H., Lee, B.C. and Wu, I.C., 2011. Applying cloud computing technology to BIM
visualization and manipulation. In 28th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in
Construction (Vol. 201, No. 1, pp. 144-149).
Gangwar, H., Date, H. and Ramaswamy, R., 2015. Understanding determinants of cloud
computing adoption using an integrated TAM-TOE model. Journal of Enterprise Information
Management, 28(1), pp.107-130.
Kumar, B., Cheng, J.C. and McGibbney, L., 2010. Cloud computing and its implications for
construction IT. In Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, Proceedings of the
International Conference (Vol. 30, p. 315).
Rawai, N.M., Fathi, M.S., Abedi, M. and Rambat, S., 2013. Cloud computing for green
construction management. In Intelligent System Design and Engineering Applications (ISDEA),
2013 Third International Conference on (pp. 432-435). IEEE.

Redmond, A., Hore, A., Alshawi, M. and West, R., 2012. Exploring how information exchanges
can be enhanced through Cloud BIM. Automation in construction, 24, pp.175-183.
Tehrani, S.R. and Shirazi, F., 2014. Factors influencing the adoption of cloud computing by
small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). In International Conference on Human Interface and
the Management of Information (pp. 631-642). Springer, Cham.
Yu, S., Wang, C., Ren, K. and Lou, W., 2010. Achieving secure, scalable, and fine-grained data
access control in cloud computing. In Infocom, 2010 proceedings IEEE (pp. 1-9). IEEE.