Wooyong Jung

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...

Critical organizational success factors for public private partnership projects – a comparison of solicited and unsolicited proposals

Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects are typically initiated through solicited or unsolicited proposals. The difference between the processes according to the proposal mode often leads to different levels of involvement and responsibilities for the public and private sectors. However, no robust research exists to capture the differences, depending on the proposal mode, in the roles and involvement of project participants and the impact of those differences on project success. This study intends to explore the critical organizational success factors contributing to the success of PPP projects according to the proposal mode and to provide practical recommendations for project success from organizational perspectives. To assess the factors, 141 questionnaire surveys were conducted with participants in 32 PPP projects. The major findings indicated that “Project Implementation Capability” had the most critical influence on solicited projects, whereas “Risk Sharing and Mitigation Strategies” was the most significant in unsolicited projects. In addition, “Interorganization Coordination” among project participants was essential to the success for both solicited and unsolicited projects. Government roles and involvement were also critical, although their contributions were relatively less important than other critical organizational success factors. Based on the findings, practical recommendations were provided for the success of solicited and unsolicited projects.

Which Strategies Are More Effective for International Contractors during Boom and Recession Periods

AbstractGiven the global financial crisis and other plummeting market conditions in 2008, the international construction market moved from boom to recession. Although this recession is expected to be completed soon, many international contractors still have difficulty deciding on the strategies that are more effective during volatile market conditions. Korean contractors have already experienced one recession in recent times, instigated by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and two boom economies before and after this recession. To investigate more effective strategies used in the overseas construction market, this study evaluates 31 Korean contractors’ international performance over the different periods (boom, recession, and reboom) and analyses the effects of diversification, localization, strategic alliance, resources cost allocation, and financial soundness by using 14 key variables. The results showed that regional diversification had a profound effect on overcoming the recessionary periods. Locali...

Understanding of Target Value Design for Integrated Project Delivery with the Context of Game Theory

Target value design (TVD) is a management method for integrated project delivery (IPD) through the collaborative efforts among different stakeholders. This study uses game theory to explain how TVD fundamentally enables each stakeholder to collaborate on initial design alignment. According to the prisoner’s dilemma, two people locked in separate jail cells tend not to cooperate even if their cooperation could bring maximum benefits to both of them because each one suspects the possibility of being betrayed by the other. In a similar way, it is easily found that each stakeholder, such as an architect/engineer or a contractor, does not make the effort to collaborate aggressively in their early alignment. For example, they traditionally prefer point-based design to set-based design because the latter can merely amount to service for free. However, if a detective interrogates two prisoners together in the same space, two prisoners can cooperate, preventing them from betraying each other. Similarly, if an owner provides a medium for communication and strongly trusts the stakeholders with a contract or an incentive, they can find optimized solutions for maximizing their value while minimizing opportunism for their own benefit. With the context of game theory, this study compares the Design-Build delivery system with IPD based on TVD in light of collaborative design alignment. Based on this comparative application, this study shows how a set of managerial target costing strategies to shift from traditionally dominant behavior to cooperative management practice. This kind of economic approach is expected to be helpful for understanding the governance of cooperation among stakeholders for IPD.

Empirical Assessment of International Entry Strategy for Large Construction Companies

Although international construction market gradually takes a important position among the export industries, the previous studies about international construction entry strategy have just focussed on trend investigation or suggestion for revitalization. Moreover, in order to prepare the market uncertainty such as world financial crisis and to plan the long term strategy, specific strategy studies based on corporate level are required. Therefore, this study estimates the nine strategic index and four financial index of 31 companies that performed 1920 international projects from 1993 to 2007 and evaluate the performance as three periods by multi-regression analysis. Also, this study analyze dynamic correlation between these index and the performance considering times. this study verifies that market diversification, product diversification, localization and decrease of debt to asset ratio make a good effect on the international order as long term strategy and shows that collaborated entry with domestic corporations, alliance entry with host country`s company, alliance entry with third country`s company, portion of labor cost and portion of management expense differently make a influence on the performance as times. these results will be helpful for the construction companies to plan the international entry strategy reasonably and specifically.

Financial Conflict Resolution for Public-Private Partnership Projects Using a Three-Phase Game Framework

AbstractMany countries use financial aids to expedite public-private partnership (PPP) projects, depending on their financial status and/or demand for additional infrastructure. Minimum revenue gua...