The impact of contractors’ attributes on construction project success: A post construction evaluation

The success of construction projects is a fundamental issue for most governments, users and communities. In the literature that deals with construction project success and causes of time and cost overruns in the construction industry, there is some literature that highlights the role of the contractors in project success. While most studies rank contractors’ success attribute from tendering, prequalification, and a long term historical perception perspective, this paper aims to study the impact of contractors’ attributes on project success from a post construction evaluation perspective to identify what critical success factors (CSFs) that greatly impact the success of project. In an attempt to understand and investigate this impact, a questionnaire survey is used to establish construction professionals’ perception of CSFs of contractors that greatly impact on the success of construction projects. Factor analysis reveals nine underlying clusters namely :(i) safety and quality; (ii) past performance; (iii) environment; (iv) management and technical aspects; (v) resource; (vi) organisation; (vii) experience; (viii) size/type of pervious projects; and (ix) finance. Logistic regression techniques were used to develop models that predict the probability of project success. Factors such as turnover history, quality policy, adequacy of labour and plant resources, waste disposal, size of past projects completed, and company image are the most significant factors affecting projects success. Assuming that project success is repeatable, these findings provide clear understanding of contractors’ performance and could potentially enhance existing knowledge of construction project success.

► We examine the impact of contractors’ attributes on construction project success.
► There is considerable debate about what determines construction project success.
► Construction projects and their success are closely related to contractors.
► CSFs are a smarter way that when present are likely to make the project successful.
► LR shows that the success of a project is significantly associated with seven CSFs.