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Previous studies have proposed that correctly managing stakeholders with certain attributes can benefit project management; however, robust theoretical elaborations and empirical investigations of this topic have been lacking. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of two stakeholder attributes – contractor-perceived contractor salience and contractor project position – on the criticality of five typical contractor-related risks: risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract.

Questionnaire data were collected from 118 Chinese contractor managers. Regression models were run in Mplus 7.11 to test the hypotheses.

The data show that higher contractor-perceived contractor salience and a more supportive contractor project position were both related to lower criticality of contractor-related risks, including risk of (1) injuries and accidents, (2) quality defects, (3) work delays, (4) cost overruns and (5) breaches of contract. Contractor salience also mediated the negative relationship between a supportive contractor project position and the criticality of contractor-related risks.

The authors’ research design is cross-sectional and thus cannot establish causation in the relationships among the studied variables. The single item measure of contractor project position was used for the first time in the present study; thus, its reliability and validity still await more empirical examinations.

The findings advance the understanding of the value of stakeholder management in projects by specifying that prioritizing stakeholders' claims and securing their support for the project reduce the criticality of stakeholder-related risks. By providing empirical evidence from the construction context, the findings also add to knowledge on the instrumental power of stakeholder management in enhancing project risk management performance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify risk patterns of road and bridge projects in Vietnam, where the construction market is emerging but attractive to construction organizations, especially foreign companies.

Using a questionnaire, experienced practitioners of various contractors were interviewed to collect risk-related data in terms of actual likelihood and impact from road and bridge construction projects in Vietnam. Using the collected data of actual likelihood and impact, the specific probability and impact of risk factors were determined for different types of road and bridge projects, including small and medium type, big type, government-funding type, and other-funding type (e.g. official development assistance funds, public-private partnership).

The results of analysis indicate the specific probability and impact of risk factors in four risk themes, including contractor-related, project-related, owner-related, and external risks. Actual risk patterns for different types of road and bridge projects in Vietnam were identified.

The identification of actual risk patterns could help practitioners to know which risk factors are severe in frequency and/or impact. Hence, they could establish proper strategies to manage risk-related problems of road and bridge projects, in which they are directly involved.

The findings of this study could provide construction companies, especially foreign companies, with a better understanding of real risk panorama in Vietnamese road and bridge construction. Hence, they could make effective improvements on risk management of road and bridge projects in Vietnam.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a set of risk-related factors influencing the earned value management (EVM) concept as an assessment technique in evaluating the progress of modern sustainable infrastructure construction projects.

A qualitative research approach has been adopted for identifying risk-related factors influencing EVM concept from a literature review and through interviewing industry personnel, followed by an inductive process to form sets of key factors and their measuring items.

EVM is a common method for assessing project performance. A weakness of this approach is that EVM assessment in its current form does not measure the impact of a number of project performance factors that result from the complexity of modern infrastructure construction projects, and thus does not accurately assess their impact in this performance. This paper discusses and explains a range of potential risk factors to evaluating project performance such as sustainability, stakeholder requirements, communication, procurement strategy, weather, experience of staff, site condition, design issues, financial risk, subcontractor, government requirements and material. In addition, their measuring items were identified.

This research assists projects managers to improve the evaluation process of infrastructure construction performance by incorporating a range of factors likely to impact on that performance and which are not included in current EVM calculations.

This research addresses the need to include in the EVM calculation a range of risk factors affecting the performance of infrastructure projects in Australia and therefore makes this calculation a more reliable tool for assessing project performance.

This chapter discusses the application of fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) modelling to construction management (CM) challenges and problems. It focuses on the critical issue of managing the complexity and uncertainty inherent in CM by providing a new intelligent layer that enhances classical approaches to construction modelling and management. It investigates how the myriad types of internal and external factors affecting the feasibility and performance of construction projects can be modelled using a fuzzy hybrid method that explores the complex relationships among many contributing factors and assesses and evaluates their impacts on past and future projects. This chapter proposes a hybrid modelling approach in the traditional context of cost, schedule and risk management and describes how augmenting and enhancing existing state-of-the-art tools and processes in CM can assist construction managers. This chapter provides a background on the theory of FCMs, presents foundational and current research, and explains how to apply this approach in the CM domain. This chapter also provides a detailed description of how to develop, modify and employ interactive models to specific CM challenges and problems. It includes a customisable, interactive base model and demonstrates how the model has been applied to specific CM events and issues. Examples are presented that highlight the interplay between project-specific goals and characteristics and the way these impact the interrelated and often opposing triad of cost, schedule and risk. The presented examples and practical applications make this state-of-the-art approach useful to both academic and industry practitioners.

To achieve project success, an effective project risk management procedure is inevitable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of risk factors on project success in the Chinese construction industry context.

This study by way of utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods has examined risk factors that are closely linked to project success in the Chinese construction industry.

After a thorough survey and analysis, risk factors related to designer, contractor, subcontractor, client and government are shown to affect project success to some extent.

It is suggested that the present research may be made more generalizable by a larger, more representative samples across various industries and regions of China.

Despite the fact that extensive studies on public-private partnerships have focused on risk identification and classification, research still lacks concentration on studying the latent structure of risks in build operate transfer (BOT) transportation projects, especially in developing countries. The research was carried out in Vietnam and this paper aims to explore the underlying relationships among risks in the context of BOT transportation projects.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the perception of stakeholders regarding the probability of occurrence and the severity of the impact of risks related to BOT transportation projects. Factor analysis was performed based on a total of 40 risks.

Seven risk groups were formed as a result of factor analysis, namely, “projects’ viability and political-regulatory risks”, “macroeconomic risks”, “projects’ feasibility study and market risks”, “financial risks”, “organization/coordination and force majeure risks”, “tolling, contractual, approvals risks” and “media and land expropriation risks”.

The research contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing deep insight into the structure of risks in BOT transportation projects in Vietnam through exploring the underlying relationships among risks, to form a latent risk structure from practical viewpoints. The findings are beneficial for involved stakeholders and policymakers to set up and propose suitable management strategies and related policies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of benefits, barriers and risks on user satisfaction in ERP projects.

ERP systems are costly and complex systems. They require heavy investments. ERP systems provide a lot of benefits. However, there are some barriers that need to be solved during implementation if maximum of benefits is aimed. If barriers are not solved adequately, they become drivers of risks. Benefits, barriers and risks have important effects on user satisfaction. Post implementation reviews are important tools to gain insights about the effect of benefits, barriers and risks on user satisfaction. However, post implementation reviews of ERP projects are not commonly realized. First, a literature review on ERP benefits, barriers and risks is conducted. Second, benefits, barriers and risks are checked with their effects on user satisfaction in ERP projects. The research is conducted in a branch of a multinational firm. A questionnaire consisting of statements related with benefits, barriers, risks and user satisfaction is used. The questionnaire is given to 32 individuals; 25 of whom respond to the questionnaire.

The findings suggest that in this case study benefits are more effective on user satisfaction in ERP projects.

This research puts forward an example for a post implementation review. However, the results show that firms aiming to succeed in ERP projects should emphasize benefits.

Under the background that engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracting model is introduced to adapt to the highly fragmented characteristics of prefabricated construction, the schedule management of general contractor is faced with the challenge of dynamic transmission and interaction of construction scheduling-related risk. The purpose of this paper is to develop the hierarchy of prefabricated construction scheduling-related risks from the perspective of the general contractor, and to analyze the transmission mechanism between risks. The paper also aims to further distinguish the difference of the impact degree of scheduling-related risks, and provide reference for formulating the strategy to alleviate the construction delay.

Based on a review of the literature on prefabricated buildings, this paper identifies 22 scheduling-related risks in construction from the perspective of the general contractor. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to obtain experts' views on the interrelationships among these risks. Following this, their overall structure was determined by using a hierarchical structure established by using interpretive structural modeling (ISM), and Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliqués à un Classement (MICMAC) technique was applied to classify them into four groups according to their driving and dependence powers.

The results indicate that the 22 scheduling-related risks in construction followed the inherent path of step-by-step transmission, and all of them could cause different degrees of delays in prefabricated construction. Among them, general experience in contracting projects, the use of emerging technologies and the completeness of the relevant standards and specifications were strong drivers of scheduling delays in construction, and should be prioritized by the general contractor in schedule management. The transitive link between scheduling risks can guide them in developing prevention strategies.

Data quality and reliability risks are the major drawbacks of semi-structured interviews. These were minimized by engaging experts with rich theoretical and hands-on experience in prefabricated construction projects. The hierarchical model only reflects static influence relationships, and so dynamic interactions among scheduling-related risks should be studied in future.

The primary value of this study is in its development of a hierarchical model by using the integrated ISM–MICMAC approach that reflects the interaction between scheduling risks in the construction of prefabricated buildings. The hierarchy of these risks and the results of a “driving-dependence power” analysis can guide the general contractor in taking targeted preventive measures to avoid scheduling delays in the construction of prefabricated buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to identify patterns of project risk management (PRM) practices’ adoption, and provides empirical evidence concerning the importance (and key attributes) of organizational PRM maturity to the use of risk-related practices and project performance.

The research involved two phases: interviews with five project managers, and a worldwide survey of project managers that resulted in the analysis of 865 valid questionnaire responses. Cluster analysis was used to classify PRM practices’ use, factor analysis to detect the structure of the relationship between the variables measuring PRM practices’ use and a multiple regression analysis (with canonical correlation) to further reveal the different degrees to which PRM practices and organizational maturity are associated.

The identified patterns of risk practices’ adoption indicate that different contexts of organization PRM maturity and project complexity influence practices selection. The PRM practices related with targets (e.g. time-phased budget plan) are the most used, and those related to tools and techniques (e.g. S-curve) are the least used. Additionally, the obtained results confirm that organizational PRM maturity influences risk practices’ usage, moderated by project complexity, and organizational PRM maturity influences project performance.

Empirical methods were used to investigate the relationship between organizational PRM maturity and a large set of PRM practices with project complexity as a moderator. Gaps in the use of PRM practices (i.e. areas where more PRM knowledge and training are needed) were identified. Finally, this work identifies the attributes of organizational maturity with implications in practices’ usage and project performance.

The oil and gas construction projects are affected negatively by the drop in oil price in recent years. Thus, most engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies are opting to optimize the project mainly to mitigate the source of risks in construction to achieve the project expectation. Risk factors cause a threat to the project objectives regarding time, cost and quality. It is additionally a vital component in deviating from the client's expectation of productivity, safety and standards. This research aims to investigate the causes of risk in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.

A comprehensive literature review from various sources including books, conference proceedings, the Internet project management journals and oil and gas industry journals was conducted to achieve the objectives of this study. This initial work was predicated strictly on a literature review and the judgments of experts to develop the risk factor framework for the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.

The authors found a few studies related to risk factors in oil and gas construction projects and shared a similar view about general construction projects. However, only a fraction of the factors accepted have included the variances of other studies on a regional basis or specific countries, such as the Yemen situation, due to the differences between the general construction industry and oil and gas industry. Moreover, the factors of these attributes were still accepted due to their applicability to the oil and gas industry, and no significant variances existed between countries. Research has indicated that 51 critical factors cause risks in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen. Such risk factors can be divided into two major groups: (1) internal risk factors, including seven critical sources of risks, namely client, contractor, consultant, feasibility study and design, tendering and contract, resources and material supply and project management; and (2) external risk factors, including six sources of critical risk factors, namely national economic, political risk, local people, environment and safety, security risk and force-majeure-related risk factors. A risk factor framework was developed to identify the critical risk factors in the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen.

This research was limited to the oil and gas construction projects.

Practically, this study highlights the risk factors that cause a negative effect on the success of oil and gas construction projects in Yemen. The identification of these factors is the first step in the risk management process to develop strategic responses for risks and enhance the chances of project success.

The identification of risks factors that cause the failure of construction projects helps develop response strategies for these risks, thereby increasing the chances of project success reflected in the oil and gas sector, which is a main tributary of the national economy in developing countries.

This research is the pioneer for future investigations into this vital economic sector. Given the lack of resources and studies in the field of construction projects for the Yemeni oil and gas sector, the Yemeni government, oil companies and researchers in this field are expected to benefit from the results of this study. The critical risk factors specific to the oil and gas construction projects in Yemen should be further investigated with focus only on Yemen and its oil and gas industry players.