COVID-19 Struggle and Post-COVID-19 Recovery: Exploring the Governance, Success, and Digital Transition in Construction Projects in Serbia

Abstract

Construction, one of the largest global economic sectors, has been severely challenged by the economic uncertainties brought on by COVID-19. Since 2020, pandemic-related disruptions and remedial measures have made its historically low performance even more difficult. As a result, recent research mainly addressed these negative consequences on the construction sector. In contrast, this paper aims to identify mitigation strategies recognised as good practices on construction projects in Serbia, in addition to detecting disruptions and quantifying their effects on cost and time overruns. A particular emphasis is given to how the pandemic hastened digital transition and encouraged the adoption of modern project management practices. The research was carried out through a survey of two rounds, conducted one year apart, to obtain an in-depth overview. The findings indicated that, although it had an impact on construction projects, the pandemic was not particularly harmful, because of widely used remedial measures and modern project management techniques. However, the pandemic did not modernise project implementation substantially nor significantly increase the use of cutting-edge digital technologies. Nevertheless, it encouraged project managers to think about introducing new approaches in project management, where digitisation is the new normal. The research findings may indicate to academia and practitioners what strategies may assure a project’s implementation even in enormously changed conditions, such as during a pandemic.