Interaction Effects of Information Technologies and Best Practices on Construction Project Performance
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139, Issue 4
Abstract
Building from considerable empirical research in the general business literature, this paper quantitatively explores the view that the benefits of information technologies manifest themselves through improvement in work processes. In turn, better work processes lead to increased project performance. Using an overall sample of 133 projects (missing data make specific correlation sample sizes smaller) from the Construction Industry Institute Benchmarking and Metrics database, this paper analyzes correlations between technology use and integration, best practices, and project performance measured with cost, schedule, and rework metrics. Data are also used to assess the complementary interaction between technology use, work processes as measured by best practices, and performance. The findings show that there are limited significant beneficial correlations between information technology use and performance, slightly more significant beneficial correlations between best practice use and performance, and several significant correlations between information technology use and application of Best practices. Interaction effects of the combined use of information technologies and best practices against performance are assessed, finding several positive correlations, although limited data availability prevents robust statistical evaluation. Overall, the paper concludes there is evidence that the benefits of information technologies in construction are found through changes in work processes. This paper thus challenges more common approaches that attempt to directly correlate the impact of information technology use on project performance with corresponding implications for both academic and industrial attempts at assessment.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the National Institute of Standards and Technology who partially supported this study under contract No. SB1341-07-SE-0623 and the Construction Industry Institute which provided the data for analysis.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 139 • Issue 4 • April 2013
Pages: 361 - 371
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 29, 2011
Accepted: Jun 13, 2012
Published online: Jul 27, 2012
Published in print: Apr 1, 2013
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