Editorial : systems for construction management

The continued advances of management theories and praxis as well as digital technologies have constantly transformed construction project delivery around the world. Practices at many construction project based enterprises show the importance of technical innovations, for which multidisciplinary research and development (R&D) of systematic solutions is key drivers towards leadership and success. As demonstrated by Ghosh and Robson (2015) in their descriptive case study on project management at the Empire State Building project, the connection from new research to the past practice is powerful to derive and validate the efficacy of the Lean Delivery System, as an example of advanced management system, which is widely recognized essential to produce work process excellence (Patty and Denton, 2010). Under grand challenges (Chen, 2019) in construction management (CM) via continuous enhancement to efficacy and performance, it is important for R&D to be in adaptive, responsive, and/or proactive modes through using state-of-the-art theories and technologies to improve the performance of project-based managerial systems and practices.The Research Topic on Systems in Construction Management is proposed and coordinated by the two editors from 2018 to 2020. Figure 1 illustrates its background, goal, and themes. It aims to promote technical advances in the development and use of systems in CM for built environment project, and to showcase new solutions through multidisciplinary practice-oriented R&D. The call for papers (CfP) was circulated through invitations by emails to experienced academics and posts to LinkedIn groups, and it is open for both experience sharing and rigorous independent research that translate knowledge gained from R&D to inform enhanced practice in CM towards excellent performance target in built environment project delivery