Critical Success Strategies for Competitive Advantage of Indigenous Construction Firms in Developing Countries: A Ghana Study

Abstract

Though a plethora of studies have suggested indigenous construction firms in developing countries are competitively disadvantaged and risk being marginalized in the competition posed by their foreign counterparts, there is lack of empirical study that identifies the critical success strategies for competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms in developing countries to adduce empirical findings towards policy direction and formulation. Thus, this study identifies the critical success strategies for competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms in developing countries using Ghana as a case study and suggests strategies for competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms. The use of principal component analysis and varimax rotation in data analysis aided in reducing the large set of success strategies to four principal components. Using a questionnaire survey, 667 respondents were invited to rate 21 success strategies identified from literature based on their knowledge and experience. Correlations between the 21 variables showed that four key components underlay the critical success strategies for competitive advantage of indigenous construction firms in developing countries, namely tendering, contract, client-centred and branding strategies. Findings and recommendations of this study may be useful to construction stakeholders who are seeking innovative ways to enhance indigenous construction firms’ competitive advantage and policy direction.