Configuration Analysis of Integrated Project Delivery Principles’ Obstacle to Construction Project Level of Collaboration

Abstract

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) with collaborative work as its core is supported by increasing numbers of scholars and practitioners, due to the performance improvement of project construction and projects’ success promotion. However, some factors such as the contract, the technology, and the personnel behaviors hinder the application of IPD, which has negative impacts on the collaboration level of construction projects. On the basis of the configuration analysis, the purpose of this paper is to increase the effectiveness of collaborative management of construction projects by encouraging the application of IPD principles. This is achieved by introducing the proof of contradiction and thoroughly examining the impact of the application of IPD principles’ barrier with the level of collaboration. Added to that, the research necessity of configuration analysis on IPD principles’ obstacle to construction project collaboration is demonstrated through bibliometric analysis; thus, a questionnaire survey is applied to collect opinions related to IPD principles from 235 industry practitioners. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is deployed to gather IPD principles’ obstacles for construction project collaboration. The results show that (1) the absence of contractual and behavioral principles obstructs significantly the level of collaboration of construction projects in several cases, (2) catalysts for IPD have no significant impact in most cases, and (3) the unfamiliarity with IPD has negative impacts on the application of its principles. The theoretical contribution consists of filling the gap in IPD’s collaborative management research and improving the research method in related fields. As for the practical contribution, it aims to prioritize the importance of IPD principles and provide valuable suggestions.