Relative Importance of Subcontractor Selection Criteria: Evidence from Singapore
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135, Issue 9
Abstract
Subcontractors carry out a large portion of the work done in construction projects. Thus, selecting the right subcontractor essentially contributes to the project’s success. We designed a choice-based conjoint experiment to examine the relative importance of four criteria in the subcontractor selection process of main contractors from Singapore: price, technical know-how, quality, and cooperation. Although main contractors adopt a multicriteria selection process and perceive all four criteria to be important for their choice decision, the actual choice situation reveals that price is still by far the most important selection criterion, followed by quality, cooperation, and technical know-how. Main contractors are not willing to compromise on price but accept a lower performance of a known subcontractor on the remaining criteria.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Albino, V., and Garavelli, A. C. (1998). “A neural network application in sub-contractor rating in construction firms.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 16(1), 9–14.
Arditi, D., and Chotibhongs, R. (2005). “Issues in subcontracting practice.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(8), 866–876.
Borman, W. C., and Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). “Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance.” Personnel selection in organizations, N. Schmitt and W. C. Borman, eds., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 71–98.
Coase, R. H. (1937). “The nature of the firm.” Economica, 4(16), 386–405.
Dellaert, B., Borgers, A., and Timmermans, H. (1995). “A day in the city: Using conjoint choice experiments to model urban tourists’ choice of activity packages.” Tourism Management, 16(5), 347–353.
Dhar, R., and Wertenbroch, K. (2000). “Consumer choice between hedonic and utilitarian goods.” J. Mark. Res., 37(1), 60–71.
Dickson, M. A., Lennon, S. J., Montalto, C. P., Shen, D., and Zhang, L. (2004). “Chinese consumer market segments for foreign apparel products.” J. Consum. Mark., 21(5), 301–317.
Dulaimi, M. F., and Hong, G. S. (2002). “The factors influencing bid mark-up decisions of large- and medium-size contractors in Singapore.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 20(7), 601–610.
Epstein, S. (1979). “The stability of behavior: on predicting the most of the people much of the time.” J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., 37(7), 1097–1126.
Ewing, G., and Sarigöllü, E. (2000). “Assessing consumer preferences for clean-fuel vehicles: A discrete choice experiment.” J. Public Policy Mark., 19(1), 106–118.
Faulkner, A. C., and Day, A. K. (1986). “Images of status and performance in building team occupations.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 4(3), 245–260.
Greenwood, D. (2001). “Subcontract procurement: are relationships changing?” Constr. Manage. Econom., 19(1), 5–7.
Gushgari, S. K., Francis, P. A., and Saklou, J. H. (1997). “Skills critical to long-term profitability of engineering firms.” J. Manage. Eng., 13(2), 46–56.
Hatush, Z., and Skitmore, M. (1997). “Criteria for contractor selection.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 15(1), 19–38.
Hensher, D. A., Rose, J. M., and Greene, W. H. (2005). Applied choice analysis: A primer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Higgin, G., and Jessop, N. (1965). Communications in the building industry, 2nd Ed., Tavistock, London.
Hillebrandt, P. M. (1985). Economic theory and the construction industry, 2nd Ed., Macmillan, London.
Hinze, J., and Tracey, A. (1994). “The contractor-subcontractor relationship: The subcontractor’s view.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 120(2), 274–287.
Hogan, R., Hogan, J., and Roberts, B. W. (1996). “Personality measurement and employment decisions.” Am. Psychol., 51(5), 469–477.
Holt, G. D. (1998). “Which contractor selection methodology?” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 16(3), 153–164.
Humphreys, P., Matthews, J., and Kumaraswamy, M. (2003). “Pre-construction project partnering: From adversarial to collaborative relationships.” Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 8(2), 166–178.
Hunter, J. E. (1983). “A causal analysis of cognitive ability, job knowledge, job performance, and supervisory ratings.” Performance measurement and theory, F. Landy, S. Zedeck, and J. Cleveland, eds., Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J., 257–266.
Hunter, J. E., and Hunter, R. F. (1984). “Validity and utility of alternative predictors of job performance.” Psychol. Bull., 96(1), 72–98.
Kumaraswamy, M., and Matthews, J. D. (2000). “Improved subcontractor selection employing partnering principles.” J. Manage. Eng., 16(3), 47–57.
Loh, W. H., and Ofori, G. (2000). “Effect of registration on performance of construction subcontractors in Singapore.” Eng. Construct. Architect. Manag., 7(1), 29–40.
Louviere, J. J. (1988). Analyzing decision making: Metric conjoint analysis, Sage, Newbury Park, Calif.
Louviere, J. J., Hensher, D. A., and Swait, J. D. (2000). Stated choice methods: Analysis and application, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
Machlup, F. (1946). “Marginal analysis and empirical research.” Am. Econ. Rev., 36(4), 519–554.
Mahdi, L. M., Riley, M. J., Fereig, S. M., and Alex, A. P. (2002). “A multi-criteria approach to contractor selection.” Eng., Constr., Archit., Manage., 9(1), 29–37.
Okoroh, M. I., and Torrance, V. B. (1999). “A model for subcontractor selection in refurbishment projects.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 17(3), 315–327.
Pain, J., and Bennett, J. (1988). “JCT with contractor's design form of contract: A study in use.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 6(4), 307–337.
Peters, G. (1981). Project management and construction control, Construction, London.
Russell, J. S., Skibniewski, M., and Cozier, D. R. (1990). “QUALIFIER-2: Knowledge-based system for contractor prequalification.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 116(1), 157–171.
Sapede, C., and Girod, I. (2002). “Willingness of adults in Europe to pay for a new vaccine: The application of discrete choice-based conjoint analysis.” Int. J. Market Research, 44(4), 463–491.
Shah, J. B., and Murphy, J. (1995). “Performance appraisals for improved productivity.” J. Manage. Eng., 11(2), 26–29.
Street, D. J., Burgess, L., and Louviere, J. J. (2005). “Quick and easy choice sets: Constructing optimal and nearly optimal stated choice experiments.” Int. J. Res. Mark., 22(4), 459–470.
Verma, R., and Pullman, M. E. (1998). “An analysis of the supplier selection process.” Omega, 26(6), 739–750.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 135 • Issue 9 • September 2009
Pages: 826 - 832
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: May 15, 2007
Accepted: Apr 10, 2009
Published online: Aug 14, 2009
Published in print: Sep 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.