Critical Factors Affecting Contractors’ Decision to Bid: A Global Perspective

Abstract

Given that project selection is a vital and recurring strategic decision for construction firms, there is a sizeable collection of studies that examine the factors affecting contractors’ decision to bid (d2b). With the aim to provide a global perspective of factors affecting contractors’ d2b, this study meta-analytically reviews 24 relevant studies published between 1988 and 2021. The results show that that there are 28 critical factors, and the top five factors are (i) project payment terms, (ii) financial capacity of client, (iii) client’s reputation in the industry, (iv) the history of client’s payments in the past projects, and (v) project size. The heterogeneity test results, which show no statistically significant heterogeneity across the included studies, reinforce the generalisability of the findings to a global context. The research findings have practical implications for construction clients in their procurement of construction services, highlighting the importance of good reputation and payment history. For contractors, they now have access to a list of critical factors from a global perspective in facilitating their d2b decision. There are methodological implications for the research community in guiding future efforts in replicating studies.