TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to identify the soft skills of construction project management; and second, to investigate the influence of these soft skills on project success factors in the Vietnamese construction industry.Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was conducted with 108 project management professionals from the Vietnamese construction industry. Partial least square structural equation modelling was employed in data analysis.Findings Four-dimensional structure of project success factors was confirmed in this study. Results also showed that soft skills of project managers significantly contributed to project success factors and hence the project success.Research limitations/implications There may be geographical limitation on the conclusions drawn from the findings. Similarly, the sample size was still small, despite a relatively high response rate. In addition, the majority of the respondents were contractors and clients as other project players were reluctant to respond to the survey.Practical implications This study provides an understanding of the relationship between soft skills and project success factors.Originality/value Although there have been studies focused on soft skills of project management and project success factors, few have attempted to analyse the effects of these soft skills on critical success factors. Thus, this study adds significantly to the existing research on both project management skills and project success factors. VL - 25 IS - 3 SN - 0969-9988 DO - 10.1108/ECAM-01-2016-0016 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-01-2016-0016 AU - Zuo Jian AU - Zhao Xianbo AU - Nguyen Quan Bui Minh AU - Ma Tony AU - Gao Shang PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Soft skills of construction project management professionals and project success factors: A structural equation model T2 - Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 425 EP - 442 Y2 - 2024/04/25 ER -