Abstract
67.9% of Chinese international construction projects are seriously delayed, which creates the potential for instability in its rapidly growing share of global contracting markets. A greater understanding of the reasons behind the challenges confronting international contractors is urgently required such that improvements can be developed that ultimately will benefit many countries. This study aims to investigate the time performance of international projects in developing countries and to explore the root causes of time overrun. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis of 112 case study projects, collected from 12 of the largest Chinse state-owned enterprises (SOEs), this study identifies the distinctive characteristics of three types of projects (late, acceptable, early) classified based on their time performances. It is established that time performance is significantly related to the contractor’s adaptability and project complexity. The results reveal the root causes of construction delays in international project delivery, which provides a structured and in-depth understanding of both internal and external time performance influential factors. The above findings provide sound basis for guiding practitioners in choosing appropriate strategies to improve project time performance, such as encouraging cross-cultural dialogues, integrating global resources and establishing long-term global partnerships with stakeholders.
Highlights
As China is becoming more and more actively involved in international affairs, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as conceived in 2013, has drawn increasing worldwide attention
Based on case study analysis of construction projects undertaken by Chinese contractors, this study aims to investigate the actual time performance and root causes of time overrun of international construction projects in developing countries
As presented in introduction part, time performance index (TPI) is usually used to measure time performance, where TPI = 1 means that the project is completed exactly on time
Summary
As China is becoming more and more actively involved in international affairs, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as conceived in 2013, has drawn increasing worldwide attention. The World Bank (2019) predicted a trade increase of 2.8–9.7% for countries situated at the 6 economic corridors under the BRI. This increase equates to an increase in overall global trade of 1.7–6.2%. Motivated by the growing infrastructure demand along the transport corridors, more and more Chinese construction enterprises have entered the international contracting market. During this period the Engineering News-Record (ENR), has reported that in 2018, 69 Chinese companies had become top 250 international contractors. A comparison between Chinese and other national contractors in international revenue and market share is shown in Figures 1a and 1b
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