Risk Response Development in Construction Projects Delay: Multiple Case Studies from UAE

Risk response is a core element of project risk management, and is perhaps the area that needs the most improvement. Common causes of construction delay risks have been identified worldwide, and various traditional measures used for delay risk control have been critically reviewed. However, many delays in construction projects have been occurring in recent years throughout the world because of unexpected events such as financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, six case studies from five companies were chosen for this work, and were supplemented with face-to-face interviews, documentation, and direct observations. This strategy allowed the research evidence to be triangulated, and thus garnered more confidence in testing a particular concept or theory. Hence, a maturity model for risk response development has been outlined and validated to achieve construction success in preconstruction and during execution. Based on the validation, it is anticipated that by developing the risk response model, the process itself will become more objective, particularly in delay risk control.