The impact of technical standards on international project performance: Chinese contractors' experience

In international construction, Chinese contractors encounter an ongoing challenge to achieve expected project cost and time performances. This is often attributed to the use of various foreign standards, which are substantially different from Chinese standards. There are limited studies that investigate the reasons why the difference in standards are creating this challenge. This study explores the reason for the difficulties by using a mixed method research with survey data collected from construction companies involving 170 experienced managers who were involved in 115 international projects. It also involved interviews with an additional 76 managers. The findings confirm that Chinese contractors perceived significant difficulties implementing international projects due to the lack of knowledge of the foreign standards. It is concluded that an enhanced understanding of foreign standards, particularly in Middle Eastern countries, will improve cost and time performances in international projects. Strategies of active learning, inter-organizational cooperation and adjustment of talent training mode are suggested for the international contractors to cope with the issue of standards implementation.