Making the Management of a Project Successful: Case of Construction Projects in Developing Countries

Abstract

Many developing countries (DCs) are currently spending on construction projects due to the high demand resulting from rapid urbanization. However, the results of these projects in terms of time, cost, and quality do not tend to meet the expectations of the stakeholders. Despite the relevance and high visibility of this situation in many DCs, this topic has received little research attention. This study examines the combined effect of six factors that are commonly signaled in the project management literature as determinants of successful project management in construction projects. Our ultimate goal is to identify the extent to which traditional factors play a role in project management in DCs because recent studies have highlighted the uniqueness of project management in these countries, therefore requiring specific analysis within this context. To empirically address this goal, we rely on an ad-hoc survey that collected the responses from 120 project management practitioners in Ghana. First, building upon existing works, we construct and validate a scale that evaluates project management practices in DCs. Next, we use qualitative comparative analysis to scrutinize which combinations of the aforementioned six factors lead to successful project management in construction projects. The findings support the initial intuition about the existence of distinct pathways, suggesting that there is no unique formula, but that different situations (i.e., combinations of factors) might require the adoption of diverse project management practices. The primary contribution of this research stems from adding to the project management body of knowledge the understanding of how a combination of factors can assist construction engineers and project managers to plan and implement successful construction projects in DCs.