Construction Research Congress 2020
Uncertainty and Participant’s Relationship Quality: Moderating Roles of Contractual Flexibility
Publication: Construction Research Congress 2020: Project Management and Controls, Materials, and Contracts
ABSTRACT
In construction projects, the relationship quality often appears to decline due to uncertainty, then contractual flexibility is introduced as an effective tool to cope with uncertainty. However, there is a controversy viewpoint about the effectiveness of contractual flexibility, and how contractual flexibility governance the uncertainty has not been explored. This research aims to examine the effects of uncertainty on relationship quality and the moderating effects of contractual flexibility. The empirical results from a sample of 225 exchanges in China demonstrate that both environment and behavior uncertainty have a negative effect on relationship quality. In addition, contractual flexibility could moderate the negative effect of environment and behavior uncertainty on relationship quality, specifically, the degree of contractual flexibility should base on the degree of environment uncertainty. These findings offer new insights in contractual flexibility and offer important implications for introducing flexibility into contracting in construction projects.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grants No. 71872126 and 71572126. The authors thank the NSFC for its financial support and are grateful to all of the respondents and interviewees who participated in the survey.
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Published In
Construction Research Congress 2020: Project Management and Controls, Materials, and Contracts
Pages: 1302 - 1310
Editors: David Grau, Ph.D., Arizona State University, Pingbo Tang, Ph.D., Arizona State University, and Mounir El Asmar, Ph.D., Arizona State University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8288-9
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Published online: Nov 9, 2020
Published in print: Nov 9, 2020
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