Evolutionary analysis of the collaboration networks within National Quality Award Projects of China

Abstract

Construction organizations are increasingly cooperating in what are often referred to as “collaboration network” that enabled them to share risks, pool resources and explore opportunities to jointly participate in managing large-scale projects. In this study, we construct the so-called inter-contractors' collaboration networks by mapping the electronic database of NQAPC for an 8-year period (2003–2010). In these networks, nodes represent contractors; two contractors are connected by an edge if they have cooperated at least one project. By using a variety of network measures, i.e., giant component, degree distribution, average path length, and clustering coefficient, we aim to descriptively investigate the structural evolution of the collaborations between contractors in the construction industry of China. As network size increases, we find a structural transition in the collaboration community size, the degree follows power-law distribution with an exponential cutoff, the average path length tends to decrease, and the clustering coefficient slightly decreases. Some explanations and a series of construction insights are discussed. The results and methodologies not only would help governors understand the social mechanisms underlie processes of construction industry, but could help contractors choose competent partners by identifying network properties.