Contractors’ opportunism: construction professionals’ awareness of influencing factors

Abstract

Purpose

Construction contractors serve as economic partners to owners of construction projects, but often times, they could depict opportunistic tendencies which are to the detriment of the client. This study aims to focus on the awareness of construction professionals with respect to influencing factors of construction contractors’ opportunism.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was adopted in eliciting responses from construction professionals, namely, architects, quantity surveyors, builders and engineers. In total, 337 questionnaires were distributed, of which 264 were retrieved and deemed fit for analysis. Methods of data analysis used are mean item score, factor analysis, analysis of variance, Kruskal–Wallis and Student Newman Kaul post hoc test.

Findings

The study revealed that the level of construction professionals’ awareness of contractors’ susceptibility of opportunism is very high. Equally, the most ranked factor is “No sanction for not reporting inconsistency of drawings.” The postulated hypothesis was subjected to a test, and the result showed that there is a significant difference in professionals’ perceived level of awareness of factors responsible for contractors’ opportunistic behaviors.

Originality/value

The study brings to the fore professionals’ knowledge of the awareness of influencing factors to contractors’ opportunism. The established level of its awareness portends a dangerous trend and has a large negative impact on the construction industry as this opens a vista to discouraging prospective investors, developers and owners, taking into cognizance the effect this would have on the economy.

Citation

Ikuabe, M.O. and Oke, A.E. (2019), "Contractors’ opportunism: construction professionals’ awareness of influencing factors", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 102-114. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-03-2018-0054