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Chan, A P C (1996) Determinants of project sucess in the construction industry of Hong Kong, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Faculty of Business and Management, University of South Australia.

  • Type: Thesis
  • Keywords: construction industry; Hong Kong; time-cost relationship; project success
  • ISBN/ISSN:
  • URL: http:/home.bre.polyu.edu.hk/~bsachan/phd.htm
  • Abstract:
    The property and construction industry has a significant role to play on Hong Kong economy. Its contribution to GDP was 23.5% in 1991. Attempts to predict construction duration and understand the successful implementation of construction projects represent a problem of continual concern and interest to researchers and project managers. The aim of this research was to study the determinants of project success in the context of construction projects in Hong Kong. The principal objectives were to establish a time cost relationship for the construction projects in Hong Kong; and to identify factors and relationships that relate to project success. The ultimate goal was to provide clients, project managers, designers, and contractors with information that can help them become more efficient with their limited resources and as a result achieve better construction project outcomes. Analysis of 110 projects in Hong Kong has confirmed that contract time and cost has a relationship in the form of T = KCB, where T is the actual construction time in working days, C is the final cost of contract in millions HK$, K is a constant characteristic of building time performance, and B is a constant indicative of the sensitivity of time performance to cost level. The best predictor of average construction time of construction projects in Hong Kong is T = 152C0.29. It was found that the Hong Kong private sector takes a shorter time (120 days) to complete a hypothesised project with a project sum of HK$1 million (at December 1994 price) than its government counterpart (166 days). Using factor and stepwise multiple regression analysis predictors of project success were identified. It has been shown that effectiveness of construction team leader is the best predictor for project success; followed by the project management actions of the project team; effectiveness of client's project manager and client's emphasis on quality. Other factors which are also proved to be strong predictors of construction project success, but at a lesser degree, include project nature, complexity, client's emphasis on time, nature of client, competency of client, support from the parent company, project scope, effectiveness of design team leader, procurement method, client size and client's emphasis on cost. A test group comprising of six projects which were not used for estimating the regression model was obtained to test the reliability and sensitivity of the model. To test whether there is significant difference between the predicted values and the actual values, analyses of paired data were performed. The results show at 95% confidence level that the computed values derived from the multiple regression model are good predictors for the actual performance measures. Information from the research can benefit both the practice and the education of project management. In practice, the results can assist the selection of project team members; identification of their development needs; and forecast of performance level of a project before it commences. In education, the results can be used to design the content of management education programs for project managers. The results of the research study can also be used as the basis of a national and international study in Australia, Asia, Britain and Canada by extending study in collaboration with fellow researchers in these areas. Such an extension will aid the understanding of managing projects in different cultures, particularly the Asia Pacific Region.