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The purpose of this paper is to select a suitable procurement method for steel building construction in Sri Lanka following a systematic method which weigh, both procurement selection factors and existing procurement systems.

An abductive research stance is followed in this empirical study. Procurement selection factors were selected through a critical literature review which was followed by a quantitative questionnaire survey. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis and relative important index.

The critical literature review outlined 46 procurement selection factors, out of which 26 factors were very important in steel building procurement selection. Short construction period and higher constructability of design are ranked at the top with the highest priority rating factors. Management-oriented procurement system was selected as the most appropriate procurement system for steel building constructions within the Sri Lankan context.

The study is limited to widely use three procurement systems in Sri Lankan construction industry. Yet, the process followed in selecting the most appropriate procurement system could be applied for other contexts. The implications of the study are mainly identifying management-oriented procurement as the most suitable procurement method for steel building construction in Sri Lanka.

The systematic procedure of procurement method selection for steel building construction may use in the Sri Lankan construction industry to limit the resource loss due to wrong selection of procurement.

A study which critically and comprehensively presenting a procurement selection process for steel building construction is not recorded in Sri Lanka prior to this study.

Within construction procurement, transaction cost economics offers a mechanism to understand “unseen” costs associated with the pre- and post-contract work. Pre-contract, these include costs related to information gathering and procurement. Post-contract they include activities of contract administration and enforcement. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the magnitude of transaction costs (TCs) for different procurement systems used in construction projects in New Zealand. Specifically estimating the relative values of TCs for Traditional and Design-Build delivery systems for the purpose of comparison.

This study develops a conceptual model for the relationship between procurement systems and TC. The model was operationalized and developed into a questionnaire. A cross-sectional sample approach was deployed, involving pilot and survey questionnaires, and results verification through “real world” cases. Data were sought from construction professionals in management, design and operations (i.e. project managers, architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, and procurement officers). TCs were measured using time-spent conducting procurement-related activities as a surrogate for cost. Professionals evaluate their time-spent in procurement activities using a Likert scale 1-5, comparing the Traditional and Design-Build delivery systems. Data were triangulated with “real world” cases to test and explain the developed model. The test included validity and reliability, path analysis, regression analysis, factor analysis, and structural equation modelling (SEM). The primary analytical technique used was SEM to yield information on goodness-of-fit, model development and comparison, and confirmatory strategies. SPSS Amos 21 statistical software was used for data analysis and model development.

The results suggest that procurement systems have indirect impact on TCs. The relationship between procurement system and TCs is fully mediated by costs of information, procurement, administration, and enforcement. Applying the developed models (the Traditional and Design-Build) to “real world” cases, it was found that TCs in the Traditional system amounts to 18.5 percent of the annual salary cost of a project manager (as an indicator quantum), while in the Design-Build system, it amounts to 14.5 percent of the annual salary cost of a project manager. TCs were calculated using regression equations based on factor loadings in the Traditional and Design-Build models.

This study applies new theoretical model for the link between procurement system and TCs, investigating and empirically demonstrating the influence of procurement system on TCs in construction. It also offers a new plausible explanation for the factors influencing TCs in procurement. The study emphasizes “in-house” TCs from the perspective of the professionals. The findings have practical implications on construction business practice due to their robust empirical nature and theoretical framework, which might enhance the performance of the construction industry.

This study contributes to the procurement selection in construction, by introducing a new conceptual model for the link between procurement system and TCs. It has extended the current practices for procurement selection by estimating TCs for the Traditional and Design-Build systems for comparison.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to shed light on procurement innovation by examining two state-of-the-art procurement systems in China – an agent-construction system (ACS or in Chinese Dai Jian Zhi) and public-private partnership (PPP), with special consideration given to the systems’ particular political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) background.

The paper does so by using content analyses, semi-structured interviews, and a “PESTEL-Procurement Innovation” framework.

It is found that PPP has not been as popular as expected, while the ACS, which is little known to the international construction management community, is widespread in China. The study of ACS and PPP further reveals that congruence between a procurement system and its external PESTEL conditions is essential for procurement innovation.

The “PESTEL-Procurement Innovation” framework could be a useful tool for devising procurement innovation; although there are many questions yet to be answered by further research.

The paper provides useful insights into procurement innovation, particularly when governments worldwide are searching for innovative procurement systems to help deliver public projects and services.

The paper possesses originality in that it tackles procurement innovation, an area that is under researched in construction management. It exhorts the re-connection between a procurement system and its external PESTEL conditions for devising bona fide procurement innovations.

This study aims to investigate whether clients’ knowledge about construction procurement systems influence project performance objectives and the role of procurement systems on project performance objectives in South Africa.

Using a two-round survey, 90 usable questionnaires from construction professionals in South Africa plus 3 expert clients were collected. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics – means, percentages and the analytical hierarchy process to determine the rank of client project performance criteria, while inferential statistics – Pearson product-moment correlation was used in establishing the relationship between the level of clients’ knowledge and project performance.

It was found that the common procurement systems used are traditional, followed by management-oriented and integrated procurement systems. In addition, it emerged that client’s knowledge of procurement systems shows a positive relationship with the achievement of project performance objectives. Based on these findings, it is concluded that some procurement systems being selected by clients in South Africa are inappropriately selected. This is despite the emergence of more efficient procurement systems. If procurement systems are selected based on the knowledge of the client, it will give better chances of a successful project outcome.

The research suggests the need for clients to seek ways to improve their understanding or increase their knowledge of procurement systems in construction. Policymakers’ responsibilities in driving policies that will place responsibilities on clients to seek a reasonable way to improve their knowledge where possible is implied in the study.

It contributes to improving project performance by examining whether the level of knowledge possessed by a client influences project performance.

A Hong Kong‐based study of factors affecting construction industry performance levels confirms that selection methodologies and decisions are critical, both at the upstream formulation of procurement and operational systems themselves as well as the downstream selection of various project participants. Needs are identified for a holistic approach to broader procurement choices that incorporate all procurement sub‐systems, an integration with synergistic operational sub‐systems and more informed and intelligent participant choices. The many interacting variables and potential information overload point to the consequential need for harnessing IT/IS (information technology/information systems) to enable smarter selections at all stages of the construction supply chain. Frameworks and sample modules of the proposed knowledge‐based decision aids are presented in the case of overall procurement system selection and contractor selection.

Design and build (D/B) construction methods have gained more importance in recent years for their potential advantages in improving project performance. There are, however, a number of problems that are commonplace in D/B procurement, which, when they interact with each other, can lead to project time and cost overrun problems. The most important among them are design changes, together with communication and coordination lapses among concerned parties. Past research has focused only on the characteristics of the traditional construction, or separate sub‐systems such as different phases or human resource input to projects. An attempt is made in this paper to improve D/B project time and cost performance. A generic system dynamics model is developed that incorporates major sub‐systems and their relationships inherent in D/B constructions projects. It is validated and calibrated for a typical large D/B infrastructure project using time and cost overrun problems experienced in Thailand. Extensive simulations with many policies, individually or in various combinations, show that improvement in time or cost can be made with proper policy combinations that reflect strong interactions between the whole design and build system and can be derived only if these interactions are accounted for. To achieve overall improvement in both time and cost, the combination of full overtime schedule, average material ordering, and fast track construction with moderate crashing of design is most appropriate. If cost is the focus, extending the construction schedule, combined with material ordering based on actual need, and design and build with traditional construction method is the best solution.

The purpose of this paper is to review the use of various construction procurement systems in the past and present, specifically within the Australian construction industry and to overview the historical development of procurement both globally and in the Australian context through the existing literature.

The paper is an in-depth literature review of various construction procurement systems used in the past and present, both in general and within the context of Australian construction industry.

The findings suggest that even though relationship-based procurement (RBP) systems offer significant benefits to all project participants, they are unproved by many decision makers because of lack of robust theoretical concept and inability in demonstrating value for money (VfM) for public projects, which would be one of the factors causing move away from RBP in the future.

This review is one of its kind. There is no such review done before within the context of Australian construction industry in such a detail. This review is a part of a recently completed PhD study.

Unlike in the manufacturing industries, participants of a construction project operate in a temporary multi‐disciplinary organisation in which the relationship ends as soon as the project is completed. Several project procurement systems such as the traditional procurement system (TPS) and its hybrids, design and build (D&B), and build, operate and transfer (BOT), have been developed and are in use in many countries. However, a study carried out in Botswana by means of interviews of professionals and clients in the built environment found an overwhelming consensus that the procurement systems used in the country are inadequate in meeting the normal client requirements and at worst, they are adversarial. There was also a consensus that a procurement system that is based on concurrent engineering (CE) principles may alleviate these problems. Several barriers to adopting CE principles in the construction industry were raised during the interviews. The paper discusses how CE principles may be used to form a procurement system and concludes by proposing the measures that may be taken to overcome the barriers to this approach.

The lack of ‘ubuntu’ (African group solidarity) between project stakeholders in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) public building sector has been surrounded by controversy and strongly held opinions. The work reported in this paper attempts to indicate some salient issues affecting the relationships between project stakeholders. The Botswana public building sector is used as a main case study and follow‐up studies are carried out involving another eight SADC countries. The paper addresses two propositions. First, that the lack of ‘ubuntu’ between project stakeholders is primarily due to an inappropriate project organizational structure. Second, that a default traditional construction procurement system (TCPS), provides a poor relationship management system. Information is obtained on the research areas through questionnaires to construction firm executives, contract managers, site managers, trade foremen and skilled tradespersons on the dominant procurement system used in Botswana. Furthermore, senior technical officers of Public Works Ministries of another eight SADC countries are interviewed as a follow‐up to the Botswana study. The primary conclusion to be drawn is that the building procurement system purported to be in use in the SADC public building sector differs significantly from that recommended in the theory, resulting in poor relationships between project stakeholders. This is primarily due to the use of inappropriate building procurement systems. In general, the TCPS in the SADC public building sector is used as a ‘default system’. This has led to a situation where project management is a ‘fire fighting’ activity, where group solidarity between project stakeholders is out of reach. Salient steps are proposed with a proviso that the SADC public building sector should establish appropriate methods of selecting building procurement systems as a prerequisite in formulating appropriate project organizational structures which will bring the spirit of real co‐operation between project stakeholders towards project success.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the empirical relationship between mechanical, electrical, and piping (MEP) project procurement systems and project performance in the context of the Saudi Arabian construction industry. The study plans to expand the understanding of the relationship of design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB) performance with respect to change order rate, cost growth, and schedule growth.

The paper statistically analyzed 207 MEP projects. It investigates the relationship of project procurement systems and three project performance indicators. Hypotheses testing was used to assess the relationship.

The results show that projects using the DB procurement system are more likely to have less cost overrun and experience a lower change order rate compared to DBB for pricing and selection methods, yet neither procurement system had an advantage over the schedule duration based on the study’s sample.

The lack of information identifying the cause of contract change orders limits the interpretation of the findings. Sample sizes in some of the test criteria were statistically small, thus limiting the reliability or confidence level of the analysis for those samples. Caution should be used when interpreting the results as representative of the Saudi Arabian construction industry as a whole; due to the owner’s project execution policies, procedures, and standards, the level of enforcement of those practices may differ from other owners.

The paper fulfills and identified the relationship between the project procurement system and MEP project performance in the context of the Saudi Arabian construction industry.