Abstract
During the period between 2008–2013, the internal market in Spain was characterized by economic crisis, the contraction of the demand experienced in a turbulent business environment, and strong competition among companies. This situation forced many of these companies to work abroad. One of the success factors for Spanish engineering companies abroad has been effective risk management, which avoids compromising the company’s objectives, market share, or survival. This article examines the importance of risk management in the success of Spanish engineering consulting firms in the international construction market. Ten executives of Spanish engineering companies with international experience were interviewed, analyzing the importance of risk management for them in the success of internationalization compared with other success factors. The results show that the size of the companies interviewed has no influence on the importance that they gave to risk management, but international experience does relate to the assessment of risk identification and management as a success factor. In addition, companies considered risk management a key factor for optimizing their performance in foreign markets.
Highlights
Results of the Likert-type question are presented, relating to the importance for the companies of the different success factors and comparing the relative importance that risk management has with respect to the rest of the factors
To face the risks and minimize the uncertainty generated by international activity, engineering companies in the construction industry must acquire knowledge of the success factors that have the greatest influence on international activity
With the aim of determining the importance that companies with international activity give to risk management with respect to other success factors, this study particularizes the analysis in Spanish engineering companies with international activity
Summary
The uncertainty that was subsequently generated in the international market has been reflected in the statistics published by the Engineering News Record (ENR 2017), according to which international revenues of the 250 largest international contractors from projects abroad reached $468.12 billion in 2016 compared to $ 501.14 billion in 2015. Despite this uncertainty, there are different reasons why construction companies have expanded their business to international markets, such as national market saturation, the distribution of risk, or the use of opportunities abroad (Alashwal et al 2017). In this turbulent and highly competitive business environment, it is essential to understand the nature of the performance of
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