Incentives in the Chinese Construction Industry
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 134, Issue 7
Abstract
Incentives have been increasingly applied to align the objectives of participants in the delivery of construction projects. However, little research has been undertaken to systematically study the use of such incentives. This paper reports the findings of an empirical survey of the Chinese construction industry on: the need to apply incentives; frequency of the usage of incentives; how the incentive schemes are decided; and their effectiveness in application. The incentive schemes of the Three Gorges Project is also studied, from which an incentive matrix is presented that has measures tied not only to the final results but also extended to the whole construction process to facilitate providing early warnings, obtain continuous improvement, and ultimately achieve satisfactory project results for participants. It is recommended that future studies be encouraged to develop incentives according to project features such as project type, delivery system, project risk, and participants’ needs and their experience, enabling incentives to be applied broadly by participants to improve the efficiency of project delivery.
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Acknowledgments
Many thanks go to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. NNSFC50539130, 70671058), the Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. NNSFC2005037370), SRF for ROCS of the State Education Ministry, the MIRS, and MIFRS of the University of Melbourne for the financial support. Special thanks are also given to Ertan Hydropower Development Company Ltd. and those respondents for their generous contributions during the survey.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 134 • Issue 7 • July 2008
Pages: 457 - 467
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 26, 2006
Accepted: Dec 20, 2007
Published online: Jul 1, 2008
Published in print: Jul 2008
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