Personal Values to Foster the Inclusion of Minority-Owned Subcontractor Firms in the Procurement of Construction Services: A Preliminary Study

This study explores whether priming universalism values in construction project owners for whom these values are central can increase the perceived importance of the inclusion of underrepresented firms when selecting a general contractor. This hypothesis was preliminarily tested in a sample of civil engineering and architecture students (n = 42), which was divided into two groups. Those in the experimental condition received the universalism prime whereas those in the control condition did not. Then, both groups completed a general contractor selection task, basing their choices on typical decision factors, including the utilization of small and women- and minority-owned (SWaM) firms in the project proposals. While results did not provide support for the initial hypothesis, subsequent analyses showed that the prime significantly affected how conformity, tradition, and self-direction values related to the importance that participants assigned to the inclusion of SWaM firms in pre-qualification judgements. These findings suggest a strong influence coming from social norms in the workplace that future research should address.