Competitive intelligence (CI) for evaluation of construction contractors

•Using a Competitive Intelligence (CI) concept in the construction industry•Contribution is developing a CI framework for contractor selection.•SWOT, Porter's five forces, and the PEST methods were used.•Enhancement of an efficient decision process with respect to construction contractor selection

This paper investigates the application of competitive intelligence (CI) techniques for construction contractor selection process, as part of the overall construction contract management. While comprehensive and ongoing CI applications are employed in a variety of industries to provide valuable input for broad strategic decisions, the construction industry lags behind in adopting this methodology. The use of CI for contract management is an important development in light of the realization on the part of major construction contractors that the diffuse nature of the information and lack of robust analysis create numerous uncertainties during the decision-making processes. The findings of this paper show that CI has the potential to improve the process for assessing and selecting contractors, through supporting an unbiased and auditable decision making process. A case-study on using CI for contractor selection on a megaproject in the industrial sector is presented along with the guidelines for the use and implementation of CI in the construction industry as a whole.