Heedae Park

Structuring the prediction model of project performance for international construction projects: A comparative analysis

Early understanding of project conditions is crucial so as to proactively respond to the variable situations of a project. Particularly, international construction projects are affected by more complex and dynamic factors than domestic projects; frequently being exposed to serious external uncertainties such as political, economical, social, and cultural risks, as well as internal risks from within the project itself. This study develops a structural equation model (SEM) to predict the project success of uncertain international construction projects. Through a comparative analysis of SEM with a multiple regression analysis and artificial neural network, SEM shows a more accurate prediction of performance because of its intrinsic ability to consider various risk variables in a systematic and realistic way. In addition, the use of SEM allows for visually depicting the paths of how those complicated variables are interrelated so as to promote the clear understanding of the complex system and its underpinned causes that critically affect the project success.

Social Network Analysis of Collaborative Ventures for Overseas Construction Projects

As the world construction market becomes more globalized, an increasing number of construction companies, including both large companies (LCs) and small and medium-sized companies (SMCs), have extended their business to the global market. During this process, the number of collaborative ventures to mitigate the burden of entry risks has greatly increased. This study aims to investigate the formation of construction firms’ collaborative networks for performing international projects from both the LC and SMC network perspectives. To this end, 389 real cases of overseas projects executed by Korean firms over the last two decades that involved collaboration were analyzed using social network analysis (SNA) approach. The result showed that LCs and SMCs have different perspectives when pursuing collaborative ventures for overseas construction projects; LCs have a tendency to form large and dense networks, whereas SMCs prefer to maintain long-term and targeted relationships. Moreover, this study showed a series ...

Empirical Assessment of Internationalization Strategies for Small and Medium Construction Companies

In the wake of increased globalization, more small and medium construction companies (SMCCs) are expanding into the global market. However, the international construction industry is different from the domestic with respect to resource, regulations, culture, entry strategies, and risk levels among other factors. This paper explores various ways and modes of internationalization for SMCCs under 13 key hypotheses that are relevant to the issues of internationalization from the perspective of SMCCs. To verify these hypotheses, this study used actual data from 560 cases of SMCCs’ overseas projects performed between 1990 and 2007. It was found that SMCCs’ entry scheme as prime contractors was more rewarding than in the case of subcontractors. Moreover, SMCCs are likely to evolve from subcontractors engaged with home-country contractors to subcontractors engaged with foreign contractors. Also, cultural distance is positively related to performance, but the effects of cultural properties are not as strong compar...

Social Network Analysis of Collaborative Entries for Construction Firms in International Construction Projects

The current global construction market is growing tremendously largely due to globalization of world construction markets, rapid development of world-wide communication technologies, extensions of regional Free Trade Blocks, just to name a few. Korean companies, in search for a growth from the recession of domestic construction market, have expanded into the globalized market over the last decades. During this process, collaborative entries have increased remarkably to mitigate the burdens of entry risks. This study focuses on the formation of collaborative networks of Korean contractors when entering foreign markets. Social network analysis (SNA) is introduced to investigate a variety of collaboration patterns and also their impact on performance. To this end, real collaboration cases of 389 overseas projects executed by Korean companies since 1990 were collected and classified into firm’s size, collaboration modes, and performance levels. Results of SNA showed a series of apparent tendencies of developing collaboration networks, in order to realize a better performance under the risky project conditions. This study is expected to be used to search a capable partner to gain improved outcome while considering the relevant network hubs as well as their risk levels.

Impact of Inter-Firm Collaboration Networks in International Construction Projects

The inter-firm collaboration networks created by international construction contractors have greatly influenced not only project success, but also potential business opportunities. However, despite the significance of collaboration, current research about organizational networks focuses on project teams and the limited collaboration among participants in a single project. This study consists of a preliminary investigation of 1) how the structure and properties of inter-firm collaborations change over time and 2) which network properties have the greatest effects on the business performance of member firms. To this end, this study analyzes cases of collaboration between Korean construction firms involved in international projects over the last decade. Periodic networks were developed and a longitudinal analysis was conducted to find empirical evidence. The results show that as the size of inter-firm networks increases, the networks become denser and center around the most densed large group. The results also indicate that the centrality of individual firms has a positive correlation with future contract revenues, especially considering the two-year lag.

Developing a Program Performance Management Framework for Mixed-use Development in Urban Regeneration Projects

The market volume of urban regeneration projects has steadily increased, thereby mixed-use development also shows significant market growth. However, previous researches on urban regeneration mainly deduced suggestions and plans for institution improvement based on comparison between projects implemented the inside and outside of the country. Whereas, researches on project management closely related to project success were limited, particularly in performance management. Accordingly, this research aims at developing a program performance management framework for public clients so as to succeed mixed-use development projects. Through extensive literature review and expert interview, this research developed performance indices for diverse facilities, risk management framework and integrating method of program performance score. The proposed framework is able to consider total life cycle from basic planning to maintenance phase and to check real-time performance level. Moreover, risk management framework can periodically assess and control the level of inherent risks within performance indices. The results can contribute to improve existing performance management practices and be basis for a web-based system developed in future.

FULLY INTEGRATED WEB-BASED RISK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR HIGHLY UNCERTAIN GLOBAL PROJECTS

Overseas construction projects are exposed to diverse and complex risks, including political, economical, social, and cultural issues. They tend to have a high possibility of loss/failure compared to domestic projects. For this reason, risk management is getting more important, emphasized, and systemized so as to improve the project performance. Since each phase of a construction project causes different types of risk associated with decision-making process, risk management system for global projects should be tailored to satisfy the specific needs of the particular phase. In this way, various risk management issues that arise through the entire life cycle of the project can be constantly checked and monitored. This study reviews basic decision-making processes in the global construction projects, and presents a framework for risk management of each process of a sequential decision. A fully integrated risk management system is also developed as a decision supporting tool, using key risk factors of each stage of a project.