Mitigating Opportunistic Behaviors in Consulting Projects: Evidence from the Outsourced Architectural and Engineering Design
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
Although control strategies are widely used to mitigate opportunistic behaviors, their implementation in consulting projects with intangible outputs can be challenging. Whether or not control strategies are effective to curb consultants’ opportunistic behaviors remains unknown. To fill the knowledge gap, this study examines the effects of clients’ control strategies on consultants’ opportunistic behaviors in consulting projects, with requirement risks and information asymmetry as moderators. The results from a questionnaire survey of 360 architectural and engineering design consultants showed that outcome control breeds opportunistic behaviors. This effect is exacerbated in projects with high levels of requirement risks or information asymmetry. It was also found that behavior control constrains opportunistic behaviors. The findings complement the project management literature by providing empirical evidence for the role of control strategies in curtailing design consultants’ opportunistic behaviors and by revealing that the tangibility of project outputs is an important contextual factor for mitigating opportunistic behaviors.
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Data Availability Statement
All data generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (71872039).
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Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Aug 10, 2021
Accepted: Mar 4, 2022
Published online: Apr 20, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Sep 20, 2022
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